The Sleepyside Zone

Page 4

The Mystery Off Glen Road is a case in point. As the book opens Trixie and Honey are happily contemplating the "perfectly perfect" clubhouse they've been restoring over the course of the previous two books. But they wake up the next morning to find their clubhouse and hard work nearly destroyed by a blizzard. The remainder of the book follows the teens as they put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

"That's a lesson in life and it's quite a foreshadowing of adulthood," says Swanson who also holds down a day job as a school psychologist. "I see many kids nowadays who aren't as equipped to handle those disappointments. Parents step in and rescue them more than I think is good. This was a turning point for these characters."

For the adult reader, the mysteries themselves sometimes aren't especially well-crafted or convincing. Even so, Roberts believes that the books taught her some valuable story telling lessons. "Campbell didn't just bring clues in and drop them. Her clues have an actual place in the narrative. For example, Jim's christening mug puts his evil stepfather on his trail in The Secret of the Mansion as well as the trailer thieves in The Red Trailer Mystery. The same mug leads Trixie to him. I doubt that Campbell initially planned for the christening mug to keep turning up - but once she got the clue she carried it forward."

Campbell exploits the specifics of landscape and locale, e.g., copperheads and catamounts, in developing Sleepyside. Later series authors also built on the area's heritage, such as Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. "The town seemed so real, I was shocked to find there was no Sleepyside in our atlas," recalls children's author Kathryn Reiss.

Years later, the tables were turned when Reiss created the fictional town of Garnet, Massachusetts, for two of her books. She was pleased and amused to receive a letter from a young reader who had tried to locate Garnet while on family vacation. "Shades of Sleepyside!" she says.

A total of 39 Trixie Belden volumes were published between 1948 -- 1986. Campbell, however, left the series after the first six books. Subsequent volumes, published under the house name, "Kathryn Kenny," were written by authors of varying abilities and allegiance to Campbell's original vision. But the pattern of a spirited girl and her friends working together and solving mysteries survived.

So did fan loyalty, sending prices soaring at online auction sites. The four volumes Random House reissued in 2003 have already been through multiple printings and the publisher, which acquired Trixie Belden in 2001, has announced plans for reissuing at least the first 15 volumes.

The small-town, "harum-scarum" girl with P.I. ambitions turns out to have staying power. "These were by no means meant to be classic kids books," says Swanson. "They were meant to be pulp fiction for kids. But Trixie tunnels her way into your heart and so many of us still love Trixie."

Trixie Belden, it seems, is here to stay and delight a new generation of young readers and, just possibly, influence another generation of mystery writers.

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Judith Sears is a freelance writer based in Washington, DC.

This article and the accompanying images were originally published in Mystery Scene magazine, Winter, 2004. Trixie Belden® is a registered trademark of Random House. This page and its author are not affiliated with Random House in any way. I am not receiving any payment for reproducing this article on my site, which is intended as a fan’s homage.

Trixie Belden® is a registered trademark of Random House. This page and its author are not affiliated with Western Publishing/Golden Books or Random House in any way. I'm not making any money or profiting in any way from this site, which is intended as a fan's homage. All original text and graphics are copyright © 2003 by js@sleepysidezone.com.