Beverly Gray, Senior

Beverly Gray #4

by Clair Blank

The Alpha Deltas' senior year at Vernon College promises to be exciting because the Forsythe Film Company is shooting a film at the College.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult

253 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

A 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

Reviews

[Kaitlyn Dunnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one kind of fell short, perhaps because I had trouble believing that, even in the 1930s, a movie company would come to town to make a movie without having a script first. They just sat around for two weeks while students came up with story ideas? I don't think so. And, of course, the idea that college seniors could be as naive as these girls about the opposite sex is a little hard to swallow. I get that Beverly wants a career, but she's now been taken by surprise by and turned down two proposals of marriage and seems to think she can remain "just friends" forever. Well, of course, she does, at least for the duration of the series, although she does eventually get engaged, but in this one area, at least, I think I prefer another series from the same era. In the Judy Bolton series by Margaret Sutton, Judy actually gets married a few books into the series, and I think the series is the better for it. That said, I've already started reading BEVERLY GRAY'S CAREER. Nostalgia can make up for a great many other failings when it comes to rereading this particular series.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth installment of this 1930s series find Beverly Gray and her Alpha Delta friends in their senior year of college. A movie studio decides to film a college-based film there and when the female lead ditches small-town life for Hollywood Shirley is tapped to fill in. Shirley goes "high-hat" on her friends and alienates everyone around her. Meanwhile Beverly and her friends are on the trail of a rival picture company who tries to steal film and otherwise sabotage the movie. Also, Shirley gets kidnapped (spelled kidnaped for some reason) and Beverly goes on a mission to save her. Everything ends happily and the six Alpha Deltas are off to new adventures.

[Kirsten Elson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good childhood memory.

[B (Is For Books and That's Good Enough For Me) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book solidifies that Lenora Whitehill is my favorite character/the MVP of this series over Beverly (though I love her too!). I’d already gotten interested in this series after coming upon it back in 2021 but I knew from word of mouth/reading excerpts that Lenora was going to be a riot and that I absolutely had to read especially for her and her adventures with lead heroine Beverly.

I’ve been more interested in checking the later entries of the series after the college years but I’ve fairly enjoyed these first four, a bit of a mixed bag especially with Junior & Senior being my least favorites, but despite the low ratings from me for those, the friendship and banter among the girls has been a delightful highlight, Miss Lenora supplying most of the shine for me. A sassy screwball comedy Queen of the pages if there ever was one!

P.S. I will try to come up with more coherent reviews at a later date.