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Penny Parker Mystery Stories #3-17
The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels
This volume assembled 15 complete novels by Mildred A. Wirt (writing as Mildred Benson). A rival to the Nancy Drew series (and created by one of the primary Nancy Drew writers), Penny is a plucky girl reporter whose nose for trouble always leads to a new mystery.
- GenresMystery
1759 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 27, 2012
96 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Mildred A. Wirt
101 books61 followersMildred Augustine Wirt Benson (aka: Mildred Benson)
Writing under Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name Carolyn Keene from 1929 to 1947, she contributed to 23 of the first 25 originally published Nancy Drew mysteries. She was one of 28 individuals who helped produce the Syndicate's Nancy Drew mystery books from 1929 to 1984.
Edward Stratemeyer hired Benson in 1926. She was paid a flat fee of $125 for the first Nancy Drew book written using an outline provided by the syndicate.
Other pseudonyms: Frank Bell, Joan Clark, Julia K. Duncan, Alice B. Emerson, Frances K. Judd, Don Palmer, Helen Louise Thorndyke, Dorothy West, Ann Wirt
Writing under Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name Carolyn Keene from 1929 to 1947, she contributed to 23 of the first 25 originally published Nancy Drew mysteries. She was one of 28 individuals who helped produce the Syndicate's Nancy Drew mystery books from 1929 to 1984.
Edward Stratemeyer hired Benson in 1926. She was paid a flat fee of $125 for the first Nancy Drew book written using an outline provided by the syndicate.
Other pseudonyms: Frank Bell, Joan Clark, Julia K. Duncan, Alice B. Emerson, Frances K. Judd, Don Palmer, Helen Louise Thorndyke, Dorothy West, Ann Wirt
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 26, 2015
Okay, this includes 15 complete novels for $0.99. I will say that I've only read one of them so far (The Voice from the Cave), but I need to endorse it now because a number of you should buy it, and I'll explain why...plus, who knows if/when I would actually read all of the books.
I am just learning about Mildred A. Wirt. She wrote under many pen names, including Carolyn Keene. Yes, she wrote many of the Nancy Drew books! But then I dug deeper and it turns out she was hugely prolific, writing a host of books, most of them about plucky girl detectives.
I'm giving this five stars because it is great for what it is. This whole genre of early 20th century teen detectives (whether they were high school journalists or detectives' kids) do not contain the best writing and, okay, they are pretty formulaic. Most of them are missing at least one parent and the remaining parent is involved in some way with investigation and tend to be very open to the idea of letting their teenager engage in risky criminal investigations of their own. Yeah, yeah. But despite this, they are a pleasure to read. They're just fun. They are campy (how many times will she call Penny's best friend her "chum" on one page?) and sort of corny, which is part of the pleasure. The earnestness of the characters is fantastic and refreshing in an age of such ironic snarkiness.
A number of these old books are out of copyright now and so they are being bundled into these incredibly cheap ebooks. If you want something fun for bedtime read alouds or are just feeling nostalgic, you might enjoy these, and I promise your kids of a certain age will love them. Most of them can be found for free online, but I am willing to pay 0.99 if only for the cleaned up formatting as a Kindle book.
I found this Penny Parker book because: a) I am a middle school teacher and need to read all sorts of stuff that might be interesting to my students, and b) I am considering writing a theatrical adaptation of one of these and want to find a really fun story.
Finally, if you are going to buy one of these, I would recommend first getting "The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls", which contains a couple of Penny Parker stories along with several other plucky teen girl detectives.
I am just learning about Mildred A. Wirt. She wrote under many pen names, including Carolyn Keene. Yes, she wrote many of the Nancy Drew books! But then I dug deeper and it turns out she was hugely prolific, writing a host of books, most of them about plucky girl detectives.
I'm giving this five stars because it is great for what it is. This whole genre of early 20th century teen detectives (whether they were high school journalists or detectives' kids) do not contain the best writing and, okay, they are pretty formulaic. Most of them are missing at least one parent and the remaining parent is involved in some way with investigation and tend to be very open to the idea of letting their teenager engage in risky criminal investigations of their own. Yeah, yeah. But despite this, they are a pleasure to read. They're just fun. They are campy (how many times will she call Penny's best friend her "chum" on one page?) and sort of corny, which is part of the pleasure. The earnestness of the characters is fantastic and refreshing in an age of such ironic snarkiness.
A number of these old books are out of copyright now and so they are being bundled into these incredibly cheap ebooks. If you want something fun for bedtime read alouds or are just feeling nostalgic, you might enjoy these, and I promise your kids of a certain age will love them. Most of them can be found for free online, but I am willing to pay 0.99 if only for the cleaned up formatting as a Kindle book.
I found this Penny Parker book because: a) I am a middle school teacher and need to read all sorts of stuff that might be interesting to my students, and b) I am considering writing a theatrical adaptation of one of these and want to find a really fun story.
Finally, if you are going to buy one of these, I would recommend first getting "The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls", which contains a couple of Penny Parker stories along with several other plucky teen girl detectives.
July 22, 2013
Kept me going longer than usual due to it being 15 books in one-that's my kind of book! Since I am a Nancy Drew fan, I also liked these and would recommend them heartily.
April 30, 2022
I only read the first in the series, but it was very cute. 3.5 stars
December 13, 2021
Searing the local library website late at night for something to read, the short description of "Penny Parker" as a "Nancy Drew type girl detective" caught my eye. I should not have bothered. This volume included 15 books, I read the first, ""Danger At the Drawbridge". Penny Parker has obviously been modeled after Nancy Drew. She lives with her widowed father (a newspaper publisher, not an attorney) and the live in housekeeper. She has a gal-pal who accompanies her on her sleuthing. However, where Nancy Drew is smart, Penny Parker seems native and not too smart. I'm assuming these books were written in the 1920s or '30s.
Want to read
July 6, 2020Just finished audio of "The Wishing Well". Very entertaining. (5 stars for this one). Now I'd like to read/listen to the rest of them. Could not find the individual books on this web site.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews