The Mysterious Half - Cat Book Review 1936.The first chapter of the book was intriguing. Judy has a dream and looks to interpret it. An interesting concept and it is important that the first chapter drags you in.
In this book concepts relating to class and particularly to poverty of the era would not be seen as politically correct in a book today. This is yet another book in which we are introduced to a friend of Judy's who isn't easy to like at the start of the story. In fact the group turn on Peter in a way that makes it hard to like most of the friends in the group. I had to think for a while about the behaviour I was reading about as it was definitely different in that of other Children's Mystery Series Books I had read. When I thought about it however it was consistent to how teenagers in their groups can act and how they over dramatise things. As a writer I still think that there was a concern in creating too many undesirable characteristics in the main character and her friends that could make the fans turn against the series. The story itself also had the characters linking clues and things together that seemed totally unconnected.
hello. I've been reading your blog and I was very itnerested in the judy bolton books. I can't find any, but half of the series I've read on google books. it's very irritating how they leave out random books in the series so i have a very patchy idea of what's going on.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever have time, could you post a bit more on this story? I would like to know what happens to Peter.
Please excuse my venting, but I need to get this out. I just finished The Mysterious Half Cat last night. I've read about 10 of these book and I actually can't understand why they are so popular. The author does a good job of creating an intriguing mystery at the beginning but the clues could easily (and quickly) be explained if Judy would just ask a few pointed questions or follow up in a direct way. It is frustrating the way she allows her friends, guests, or suspects to be aloof and goes about figuring things out in a completely inefficient way. In this book for example, she merely has to pin down her friend Scottie and make her explain her contradictory comments and the same applies to the beggar in the story. Also she peers through a key hole and sees a "ghost", hears a mysterious noise and also hears a bang. Yet she never returns to the scene (the basement of a Chinese laundry) to investigate. At the end she is in said basement and these things are so obviously explained (it is embarrassing how obvious these things are). Secondly, once explained the clues are often ridiculous. The "half cat's" shadow for example could hardly have been mysterious. Any image will only be partially apparent if the light behind it is not centered. Gee great detecting, Judy! In the Judy Bolton's I've read this kind of thing happens all of the time. Lastly, as mentioned on this blog- Do all of Judy's friends have missing relatives? I found that Judy has too many people in her group. It gets confusing. But to make matters worse, the numbers grow exponentially as the series progresses. It seems that every story adds a new friend who inevitably is an orphan or has missing relatives that Judy must help identify. Talk about beating a dead horse!
ReplyDeleteThese books are popular. The Judy Bolton Yahoo group has more action than any other series group and fans even travel to the author's hometown for pilgrimages. I guess the soap operaish tug of war between Judy's two suitors and the often petty sniping of her friends all adds realism. I will likely read more Judy Bolton books because I've exhausted pretty much every other series but I won't pay more than $1 for one. However I suggest that anyone who likes girls mystery series check out Connie Blair which is in my opinion far superior.
Again, I apologize for my rather negative rant, its just that I am befuddled that so many think this series is at the pinnacle when the plot elements are so redundant and the mystery could be solved in three chapters if the "great" detective would just press and follow up. Its illogical.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI love Beverly Gray most and she has lots of friends and I love that fact. At the moment I am rereading the Beverly Gray books and gathering stats but some friends like Rosalie are in more than one book but you never really know a lot about her, even though she is in Beverly's Alpha Delta Sorority of only 6 people in Sophomore and Junior.
Judy I like except that at times there are parts on the books that make me think I shoukdnt like her or her group of friends. I haven't quite put my finger on it yet though.