Regardless of how we got our Trixie Belden mysteries (saved our allowances to buy the books or from dads, older sisters, parents, brothers-in-law, libraries) we all seem to have great memories of the times we spent with Trixie!
Some of us are lucky, and have parents who didn’t throw out these reading treasures from our youths. Others haven’t been so lucky, and have had to try to find the books elsewhere. Some of us are saving them for our children and/or grandchildren, and some of us are making a point to share them with whole classrooms of children at a time.
Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t introduce my daughter to Trixie. I am very sure they would have been great friends! (What was I thinking >>> or should I say Why wasn’t I thinking?)
I have read all of your comments both here on the site’s blog as well as on my Facebook page, and have annotated all of the different girl/boy detective series. There are some I have never heard of >>> Who would have guessed that Janet Lennon (from the Lennon sisters) was a girl detective?!
Thank you, ALL, for posting your comments on the Trixie Belden – Another Classic Teenage Girl Sleuth entry. Walking down memory lane has been great!
P.S. Robin, it sounds like the Mysterious Code may have been the first mystery with cooking tips!
Vicki says
All the books are available on Amazon. NEW. I replaced a lot of ratty old editions with new copies a couple of years ago. They’re also available for Kindle.
Meg says
Vicki, I discovered that also. I had a lot of my old ones but my cousin had some too. we used to share them during summer visits. lots of memories of us reading in the barn or on the front porch…and waiting for a mystery of our own to arrive for us to solve.
Janelle says
Aside from Trixie Belden (never got to read her..only Nancy Drew)..anyhow I picked up Ann George “Murder makes Waves” at our local library. You are right..I loved it. She writes so well and is hilarious. Gonna go back and check out more!?
Thanks Janelle
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Janelle, what can I say? There’s a reason so many of us love reading Anne George’s Southern Sister mysteries..
TXRed says
I never read Trixie Beldon books, but my best girlfriend did and she raved about them. I was first a Bobbsey Twins fan, until someone gave me my first Nancy Drew (the Hidden Staircase). I bought new Nancy Drew books when I’d saved up enough allowance; I’d always wished the local library would carry Nancy Drew, but they refused, apparently, to stock the shelves with those mass market series’ for young girls and boys. Anyway, as an adult, I started buying Nancy Drews I never could afford as a kid — but I did not buy the new versions. I limited myself to the blue cover ones out when I was a girl in the 1950s. Usually I just bought readable copies at garage sales (25 cents to maybe a dollar) but a out 10 times I paid a collector’s price for some of the earliest books with dust covers in good condition. I had longed as a kid to buy/read all of the Drew series, but my allowance needed to be used for other interests: double feature movies, stamp collection, doll house furniture from the dime store. As an adult, it was a pleasure to read the old blue-covered volumes I never got to read as a girl. My taste in mysteries suddenly changed when I was a Freshman in high school — we had a great English teacher who gave us a reading list at the beginning of the school year and we were encouraged to read as many books as we could from that list; on it were books like Sherlock Holmes and Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone and The Lady in White and modern books such as Daphne DuMurier’s Rebecca. Sherlock Holmes got me hooked on mysteries for life. And now I’m retired after a lifetime of book collecting of mysteries as well as other books, and I finally have time to read my large hoard of “to be read when I have time” books.
Sharon says
I love the Trixie Belden books. Read them all when I was younger. I didn’t know she was still out and available. Have to get with it.
Sueg says
I was a die hard trixie Belden fan
Once in a while I reread them
The last ones that were published, last time I looked cost hundreds of dollars
Such a shame as I would love to read them
Also some of them have inaccurate things in them
too such a shame
I have my original ones and I thought I was the only crazy out there
Thanks everyone for making me feel normal
Brenda1900 says
Did anyone else read the Donna Parker? She’s dated now, I remember she and her mother discussing wearing pedal pushers on a date. The mysteries, as I remember were pretty good for the 60’s and 70’s.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Brenda1900, I don’t remember Donna Parker, but have added her to my list. I can’t get over how many girl/boy detective series there are/were!
stellans says
I got started reading my mom’s Nancy Drew books, plus her “Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter,” “Peggy Parker,GIrl Inventor” and a couple more I can’t remember. A girlfriend from my grade school days introduced me to Trixie Belden. I’ve loved mysteries ever since, through Sherlock, Agatha, et al. I’m primarily a cozy reader now, as I hate the stomach ache and/or nightmares thrillers give me at my advanced age, lol.
Cindy says
I loved Trixie belden book when I was a child. They got me through some tough times. The one about the Sasquatch scared me so much I couldn’t sleep at night.
Mary says
I have all of the Trixie Belden books. Of course I had a little help collecting them. My mom loved to read Trixie Belden. so we would share the books. My mom is who got me started reading mystery stories. She loved to read and some times I would ask her about the name of her books and ask if the book was good? She would always tell me they were very good! I loved Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators!
Nancy says
My very first chapter book was Trixie Belden: Mystery on Cobbett’s Island. It was a Santa gift on Christmas morning of 1962 and I was 7 years old. Amazingly I can still remember the feelings of excitement and I treasured it. I am fortunate enough to still have that book. I gradually collected most of the remaining books in the series that were available during those years. I remember what a treat it was when my mother would let me add to my collection during our shopping trips. Trixie Belden and also Nancy Drew set the foundation for my love of cozy mysteries.
Anna says
I have the Janet Lennon books too, and Donna Parker. Annette Funicello had a book series and lets not forget the wonderful Enid Blyton mysteries where parents were barely around.
Lyn says
The first four in the series are available now on Audible.com!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lyn, thanks for the info!