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Beverly Gray #2
Beverly Gray, Sophomore
259 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1934
1 person is currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Clair Blank
114 books18 followersA year after her high school graduation in 1933, Clair Blank's first four books in the Beverly Gray series had been published -- she was a published author at the age of 18. In 1935, she wrote The Adventure Girls at the K Bar O and was immediately asked by the publisher for two additional stories so that it could be made into a series.
Clair Blank lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She graduated from college, became a typist and secretary, and during World War II worked as a volunteer for American Women’s Voluntary Services, a group that drove visiting Army officers around locally. She married George Elmer Moyer, a welder, in 1943 and had two sons.
Series:
* Beverly Gray
* The Adventure Girls
Clair Blank lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She graduated from college, became a typist and secretary, and during World War II worked as a volunteer for American Women’s Voluntary Services, a group that drove visiting Army officers around locally. She married George Elmer Moyer, a welder, in 1943 and had two sons.
Series:
* Beverly Gray
* The Adventure Girls
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 1, 2023
“A nice juicy mystery is just what I’ve been looking for.”
So says Lenora at the beginning of the girls’ sophomore year at Vernon college, and that’s what she gets. Beverly and her friends have their hands full investigating the “haunted” house on the other side of the forest behind the campus.
This second novel in the series is even more fun than the first. We get to know the girls better, especially the series’ namesake, Beverly.
“The girls, her friends, had laughingly and lovingly referred to her more than once as a dreamer. She was; she admitted it. She liked to dream of things beyond the realm of everyday life. Her thoughts were like a magic carpet on which she sped to far lands and distant seas. From her dreams she gathered courage, and faith, and love, and laughter. Was it so strange? Was it strange to dream of beauty, and of joys that you hoped to experience in the days to come? Columbus had cherished a dream when he set out to find a new passage to the Far East. Washington had cherished a dream of a new nation which he fathered. Moderns dashed about in the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, but how much pleasure did they really have? Hurry, hurry, hurry, seemed to be the hue and cry of the day. Beverly considered herself modern, but she made time to dream and appreciate the little things in life. She lived her life to the fill of each moment. She did not snatch, as did so many, at the first pretty bubble that life put in her way, only to regret it later. Oh, she did head-long, rash things--who did not? But in the main she knew the dream of what she hoped some day to be, and she strove to fashion her life accordingly.”
In Beverly’s quest to fill each moment, she often finds herself in tight spots. How she manages to escape these predicaments is what makes these Claire Blank novels such page-turners. They’re also a lot of fun. The interactions between Beverly and her friends are what I like the best. There’s also a lot of humor underpinning the mystery and danger.
Despite Blank being a teenager when she penned this novel and the first four in the series, she wrote beyond her years, evident in this lovely scene.
“It was the end of October, and the leaves were turning red and gold on the trees. The night frost nipped the grass and turned it brown. The air was crisp and cold with the warning of winter.
Beverly drew in great gulps of the cool air as she walked along. The white clouds went sailing along overhead in the blue sky like ships upon the blue ocean. The very air seemed filled with a magic strong undercurrent. She thought musingly of a line of verse written by Bliss Carman-- ‘There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir.’ How true it was. Her heart leapt rapturously as at a gay song as she swung along. She felt as if she could keep on going--going--until she stood on the rim of the world. Autumn days always made her want to wander to far, unexplored places. They awoke dreams in her, dreams of what she hoped to be some day, dreams of places she hoped to visit and sights she longed to see.”
I look forward to reading more of the Beverly Gray series.
So says Lenora at the beginning of the girls’ sophomore year at Vernon college, and that’s what she gets. Beverly and her friends have their hands full investigating the “haunted” house on the other side of the forest behind the campus.
This second novel in the series is even more fun than the first. We get to know the girls better, especially the series’ namesake, Beverly.
“The girls, her friends, had laughingly and lovingly referred to her more than once as a dreamer. She was; she admitted it. She liked to dream of things beyond the realm of everyday life. Her thoughts were like a magic carpet on which she sped to far lands and distant seas. From her dreams she gathered courage, and faith, and love, and laughter. Was it so strange? Was it strange to dream of beauty, and of joys that you hoped to experience in the days to come? Columbus had cherished a dream when he set out to find a new passage to the Far East. Washington had cherished a dream of a new nation which he fathered. Moderns dashed about in the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, but how much pleasure did they really have? Hurry, hurry, hurry, seemed to be the hue and cry of the day. Beverly considered herself modern, but she made time to dream and appreciate the little things in life. She lived her life to the fill of each moment. She did not snatch, as did so many, at the first pretty bubble that life put in her way, only to regret it later. Oh, she did head-long, rash things--who did not? But in the main she knew the dream of what she hoped some day to be, and she strove to fashion her life accordingly.”
In Beverly’s quest to fill each moment, she often finds herself in tight spots. How she manages to escape these predicaments is what makes these Claire Blank novels such page-turners. They’re also a lot of fun. The interactions between Beverly and her friends are what I like the best. There’s also a lot of humor underpinning the mystery and danger.
Despite Blank being a teenager when she penned this novel and the first four in the series, she wrote beyond her years, evident in this lovely scene.
“It was the end of October, and the leaves were turning red and gold on the trees. The night frost nipped the grass and turned it brown. The air was crisp and cold with the warning of winter.
Beverly drew in great gulps of the cool air as she walked along. The white clouds went sailing along overhead in the blue sky like ships upon the blue ocean. The very air seemed filled with a magic strong undercurrent. She thought musingly of a line of verse written by Bliss Carman-- ‘There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir.’ How true it was. Her heart leapt rapturously as at a gay song as she swung along. She felt as if she could keep on going--going--until she stood on the rim of the world. Autumn days always made her want to wander to far, unexplored places. They awoke dreams in her, dreams of what she hoped to be some day, dreams of places she hoped to visit and sights she longed to see.”
I look forward to reading more of the Beverly Gray series.
July 23, 2024
October 26, 2004
May-June 1, 2020 - read with Mom
May-June 1, 2020 - read with Mom
August 2, 2022
Ah, sophomore year of college. Fun adventures where you go out to an abandoned mansion and run into scary men (including a Chinaman, the horror!), with boxes and bags of powder in the attic. What could be going on????? These girls have no clue! I know it's the 30's but still.......nobody thinks it could be drugs? Then everybody goes to New York for the holidays where there's yet another mystery involving a jewel thief. Thank goodness the Alpha Deltas are on the job!
I know I'm making fun of it, but I really do enjoy the simplicity and earnestness and naivete of these novels.
I know I'm making fun of it, but I really do enjoy the simplicity and earnestness and naivete of these novels.
August 28, 2019
It's a nostalgia-fest to read this series again, but I have to say that if I were reading this as a contemporary cozy, I'd be screaming "TSTL" at Beverly and her friends. Why, oh, why, don't they have sense enough to go the police? And they are incredibly casual about serious injuries. I guess it's not hard to understand why that TSTL accusation is occasionally made about some of the decisions characters make in the books I write. Early influences do tend to linger!
November 4, 2016
Re-read...a childish pleasure. Nostalgic, light reading.
December 24, 2024
Interesting to see a book set in college in the 1930s. Of course, it feels more like boarding school than college, given how stringent women students were treated back then. The mystery drags and takes an entire school year to solve and is meandering and hard to follow. Which is odd. Typically the Nancy Drew mysteries are solved in a matter of weeks. There's some racial slurs. Overall, the writing is not good. Apparently Claire Blank was very young probably about 20 when she wrote it and that is impressive. I definitely see why this book has not stood the test of the time though. There's no memorable character, scenes, or writing.
April 21, 2024
I’m really enjoying this series!
August 16, 2021
One of my favorite childhood books!
Want to read
October 5, 2018Synopsis: Beverly spends most of her second university year investigating a haunted mansion used by drug smugglers.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews