Margins
The Blythe Girls book cover 1
The Blythe Girls book cover 2
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The Blythe Girls
Series · 7 books · 1925-1932

Books in series

The Blythe Girls book cover
#1

The Blythe Girls

1925

Poverty-stricken, Helen, Margy, and Rose Blythe move into a modest apartment in New York City. Helen hopes to improve as an artist and eventually sell her work, while Margy and Rose seek work. After weeks of difficulty, Rose wins a position in a department store, and Margy becomes the personal secretary of an eccentric elderly lady, Miss Pepper. Both girls face conflict at work. Rose is accused of theft and may lose her position. Meanwhile, Margy is fired after Miss Pepper's obnoxious nephew Rex tricks her into disobeying Miss Pepper's orders. The future looks grim, but the girls face their troubles bravely, and in time, each wrong is set right.
The Blythe Girls book cover
#2

The Blythe Girls

Margy's Queer Inheritance; or, The Worth of a Name

1925

Margy inherits a bizarre assortment of items, including a can of flour, from Aunt Margy Blythe. Margy is instructed to use the four to bake biscuits and breads. Once the flour is completely gone, Margy will receive further information regarding her inheritance. Soon after the arrival of Aunt Margy's things, a prowler enters the Blythes' apartment. Curiously, the only possessions targeted by the man are the things that had belonged to Aunt Margy. Is it possible that Aunt Margy's seemingly worthless possessions have a hidden value? The girls face quite a mystery as they seek the answer to this question while they await word on Margy's inheritance.
The Blythe Girls book cover
#3

The Blythe Girls

Rose's Great Problem; or, Face to Face With a Crisis

1925

Rose loses the friendship of Birdie North when Chester Drew, the new floorwalker, becomes friendly with her. Rose senses that something significant happened between Chester and Birdie in the past, but Birdie snubs Rose so thoroughly that Rose is unable to learn the truth. Rose soon faces a great dilemma after Chester inherits a department store in Buffalo and requests that Rose move to Buffalo to take a top position at his store. Rose is torn between the opportunity and her love for her sisters. Unexpectedly, Rose learns the truth about Chester and Birdie's past, and Rose's decision is finally made clear.
The Blythe Girls book cover
#4

The Blythe Girls

Helen's Strange Boarder; or, The Girl from Bronx Park

1925

Helen meets a strange girl, Jean Ridgeway, in Bronx Park. Jean induces Helen to bring her home to the Blythes' apartment. Jean recounts an amazing story of how her uncle poisoned her in order to steal her money. Jean has fled from her uncle and urges the Blythes to let her stay. The story takes a strange twist when the Blythes discover that Jean's story exactly matches the plot of a popular novel, even as to the meeting of an artist in a park. How can this be? Jean's story is the greatest mystery the sisters have ever encountered, and its solution is equally startling.
The Blythe Girls book cover
#8

The Blythe Girls

The Disappearance of Helen; or, The Art Shop Mystery

1928

Where is Helen? Margy and Rose arrive home to find the apartment empty, with no sign of Helen. As the hours pass into days, the frantic girls desperately seek answers. The last time anybody saw Helen, she was headed to Mr. Bullard's art shop at his request. Curiously, the art shop was robbed of an extremely valuable painting at about the time that Helen would have arrived. The girls feel that there must be a connection, and so Margy and Rose interview Mr. Bullard as well as the owners of the stolen painting. Finally, the girls obtain the clues they need, but it is a race against time to locate Helen before she is lost foreve
Margy's Mysterious Visitor; or, Guarding the Pepper Fortune book cover
#10

Margy's Mysterious Visitor; or, Guarding the Pepper Fortune

1930

Helen's six completed paintings are stolen by a thief shortly before a plane crashes into the girls' living room, destroying most of their furniture. The girls are forced to live elsewhere until their apartment is repaired. Fortunately, Margy is to watch over Miss Pepper's home in her absence, and Helen and Rose join her. All is not right in Miss Pepper's home after the arrival of Miles Standish, a relative of Miss Pepper from Texas. Standish prowls through Miss Pepper's home and snoops through her desk, offering flimsy excuses for his actions. The girls face many sleepless nights as they guard Miss Pepper's home, hope that Helen's missing paintings will be found, and wonder how they will refurnish their apartment.
Helen's Wonderful Mistake; or, The Mysterious Necklace book cover
#12

Helen's Wonderful Mistake; or, The Mysterious Necklace

1932

Helen decides to try for the grand prize in an art contest and chooses Margy as her model. Margy wears a lovely white gown selected by Helen and an inexpensive imitation emerald necklace that Helen purchased on sale. Everything is perfect, except that Margy hates the necklace. Oddly, all of the girls' friends think the necklace is real, and Margy feels a strange sense of foreboding. Meanwhile, the young people learn of a couple of children who live in a nearby apartment who might be abused by their father. In a strange twist, the children are connected to the true story of the necklace, and it is through them that a great mystery is solved.

Author

Laura Lee Hope
Author · 165 books

Laura Lee Hope is a pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for the Bobbsey Twins and several other series of children's novels. Actual writers taking up the pen of Laura Lee Hope include Edward Stratemeyer, Howard and Lilian Garis, Elizabeth Ward, Harriet (Stratemeyer) Adams, Andrew E. Svenson, June M. Dunn, Grace Grote and Nancy Axelrad. Laura Lee Hope was first used in 1904 for the debut of the Bobbsey Twins, the principal characters of what was, for many years, the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of children's novels. Other series written under this pseudonym include: The Outdoor Girls (23 vols. 1913-1933), The Moving Picture Girls (7 vols. 1914-1916), Bunny Brown (20 vols. 1916-1931), Six Little Bunkers (14 vols. 1918-1930), Make Believe Stories (12 vols. c. 1920-1923), and Blythe Girls (12 vols. 1925-1932). The first of the 72 books of the Bobbsey Twins series was published in 1904, the last in 1979. The books related the adventures of the children of the middle-class Bobbsey family, which included two sets of mixed-gender fraternal twins: Bert and Nan, who were 12 years old, and Flossie and Freddie, who were six. Edward Stratemeyer himself is believed to have written the first volume in its original form in 1904. When the original series was brought to its conclusion in 1979, it had reached a total of 72 volumes. At least two abortive attempts to restart the series were launched after this, but in neither effort was the popularity of the original series achieved. Speculation that Stratemeyer also wrote the second and third volumes of the series is believed to be incorrect; these books are now attributed to Lilian Garis, wife of Howard Garis, who is credited with volumes 4–28 and 41. Elizabeth Ward is credited with volumes 29–35, while Harriet Stratemeyer Adams is credited with 36–38, 39 (with Camilla McClave), 40, 42, 43 (with Andrew Svenson), and 44–48. Volumes 49–52 are attributed to Andrew Svenson, while 53–59, and the 1960s rewrites of 1–4, 7, 11–13, and 17, are attributed to June Dunn. Grace Grote is regarded as the real author of 60–67 and the rewrites of 14 and 18–20, and Nancy Axelrad is credited with 68–72. Of the 1960s rewrites not already mentioned, volumes 5 and 16 are credited to Mary Donahoe, 6 and 25 to Patricia Doll, 8–10 and 15 to Bonnibel Weston, and 24 to Margery Howard. —from Wikipedia

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