feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2009-09-04 06:03 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2009-09-04 06:03 pm
REVIEW: Cherry Ames at Spencer
Cherry Ames at Spencer
Some other time, I will do the research and write something more considered about Cherry Ames - both girl detective and career girl and surely the poster girl for the hybrid-type series, usually published by World Distributors. She takes on a different nursing job in each book, which seems to involve a child-appropriate mystery and good-looking young doctors who would sure like to know rosy-cheeked Cherry better. Unlike the heroines of other nursing books, she must always disappoint them, because she always lovesDr Joe* the most.
Cherry Ames at Spencer by Julie Tatham. World Distibutors 1958
The book certainly hits all the things I expected to see. Cherry and fellow nurse Josie are rejoining Gwen, their friend since student nurse days at a newly built children's hospital at Spencer, the hospital where they trained and Cherry got into 'scrapes' that are fondly remembered by the staff. On her first day, Cherry is told about the story of Dot Jepson, a young girl whose rheumatic fever brought her into hospital, where it was discovered that she is hard of hearing, which is to be cured by radon treatment that Cherry is involved in dispensing. Her father is on the run having escaped prison (I think) where he was sent for a crime he didn't commit, but as Dot's worsening health and his need to care for her meant that he lost his job, he was convicted as a credible suspect of a pawnshop robbery. Cherry soon deduces that circumstantial evidence turned into fact due to misunderstandings and a defence lawyer with no imagination. She makes it a personal crusade to clear the name of a man she suspects of being in contact with his daughter (the barely competent reader will not be surprised as to the identity of the Frog Prince as Dot refers to him).
We only seem to be following Cherry on her first days here and the mystery and what Cherry does about it gets far more attention than any nursing that Cherry does. She seems to get a lot of praise for it, but she's somewhat negligent in the case of malnourished Rudie Fowler, who she knows is dehydrated and seems to be having trouble at home. But there's no acknowledgement - as there is with Nancy Drew - of how obsessive she is about the case. It all comes good in the end, of course.
There's a sub-plot about the man who runs the children's hospital deciding who to promote as Resident and seeking new arrival Cherry's advice, based on her impressions bcause her reputation precedes her and he sees that she can handle children well. In fairness, Cherry relates general staff opinion as much as her own beliefs, and by instinctively calling on the better doctor to help her with a medical emergency regarding Rudie - who is ill-treated and an undiagnosed diabetic - she points the chief towards the right doctor. Both the successful and the unsuccessful doctor are fervent admirers of Cherry’s charms, although too broke as yet to think of marriage, but they are touted as light-hearted romantic interests.
Her reward after what can't be more than a few weeks' work is a recommendation for her 'dream' job of night supervisor at another hospital (although the demands of the series probably meant that she didn’t last there long). Thinking too much means that I end up picking at Cherry. I would have preferred more nursing talk – I remember being impressed by Cherry Ames Flight Nurse at least, but ~i might have read that at an impressionable age. Did the authorship make a difference in the quality of the books (Helen Wells wrote the bulk of the series). As it is, this is somewhat mechanistic, but it was a quick read and a change, as I haven’t read any Cherry Ames or career stories/mysteries in a while.
*A pet theory. Or maybe the writer(s) had issues. Okay, really he’s her mentor figure, and the idea we’re meant to take from ther relationship and his inspiration is that he engendered a desire to nurse in Cherry. That’s it. But no other man compares to him or what he inspired her to do. I know, I'm reading too much into it and ignoring the fact that Cherry’s relationship with Midge, his teenage daughter, as she is always referred to, is more important in the books. Didn’t Nancy get a sidekick? Midge is there to link between Cherry the career woman who is often in an adult position of responsibility with the girl reader.
Some other time, I will do the research and write something more considered about Cherry Ames - both girl detective and career girl and surely the poster girl for the hybrid-type series, usually published by World Distributors. She takes on a different nursing job in each book, which seems to involve a child-appropriate mystery and good-looking young doctors who would sure like to know rosy-cheeked Cherry better. Unlike the heroines of other nursing books, she must always disappoint them, because she always loves
Cherry Ames at Spencer by Julie Tatham. World Distibutors 1958
The book certainly hits all the things I expected to see. Cherry and fellow nurse Josie are rejoining Gwen, their friend since student nurse days at a newly built children's hospital at Spencer, the hospital where they trained and Cherry got into 'scrapes' that are fondly remembered by the staff. On her first day, Cherry is told about the story of Dot Jepson, a young girl whose rheumatic fever brought her into hospital, where it was discovered that she is hard of hearing, which is to be cured by radon treatment that Cherry is involved in dispensing. Her father is on the run having escaped prison (I think) where he was sent for a crime he didn't commit, but as Dot's worsening health and his need to care for her meant that he lost his job, he was convicted as a credible suspect of a pawnshop robbery. Cherry soon deduces that circumstantial evidence turned into fact due to misunderstandings and a defence lawyer with no imagination. She makes it a personal crusade to clear the name of a man she suspects of being in contact with his daughter (the barely competent reader will not be surprised as to the identity of the Frog Prince as Dot refers to him).
We only seem to be following Cherry on her first days here and the mystery and what Cherry does about it gets far more attention than any nursing that Cherry does. She seems to get a lot of praise for it, but she's somewhat negligent in the case of malnourished Rudie Fowler, who she knows is dehydrated and seems to be having trouble at home. But there's no acknowledgement - as there is with Nancy Drew - of how obsessive she is about the case. It all comes good in the end, of course.
There's a sub-plot about the man who runs the children's hospital deciding who to promote as Resident and seeking new arrival Cherry's advice, based on her impressions bcause her reputation precedes her and he sees that she can handle children well. In fairness, Cherry relates general staff opinion as much as her own beliefs, and by instinctively calling on the better doctor to help her with a medical emergency regarding Rudie - who is ill-treated and an undiagnosed diabetic - she points the chief towards the right doctor. Both the successful and the unsuccessful doctor are fervent admirers of Cherry’s charms, although too broke as yet to think of marriage, but they are touted as light-hearted romantic interests.
Her reward after what can't be more than a few weeks' work is a recommendation for her 'dream' job of night supervisor at another hospital (although the demands of the series probably meant that she didn’t last there long). Thinking too much means that I end up picking at Cherry. I would have preferred more nursing talk – I remember being impressed by Cherry Ames Flight Nurse at least, but ~i might have read that at an impressionable age. Did the authorship make a difference in the quality of the books (Helen Wells wrote the bulk of the series). As it is, this is somewhat mechanistic, but it was a quick read and a change, as I haven’t read any Cherry Ames or career stories/mysteries in a while.
*A pet theory. Or maybe the writer(s) had issues. Okay, really he’s her mentor figure, and the idea we’re meant to take from ther relationship and his inspiration is that he engendered a desire to nurse in Cherry. That’s it. But no other man compares to him or what he inspired her to do. I know, I'm reading too much into it and ignoring the fact that Cherry’s relationship with Midge, his teenage daughter, as she is always referred to, is more important in the books. Didn’t Nancy get a sidekick? Midge is there to link between Cherry the career woman who is often in an adult position of responsibility with the girl reader.