Beverly Gray, Freshman

Beverly Gray #1

by Clair Blank

When the Magic Tree House whisks Jack and Annie off to Hawaii it's for more than a vacation-they're in search of a fourth kind of magic for Morgan! On the way they help an island community survive a tidal wave and, of course, take some time out to surf! Ultimately, they discover that the magic that they have found in this set of four books are everyday the magic of the arts, the magic of the natural world, the magic of community; and the magic of fun.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Young Adult, Childrens, School Stories

254 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

[Gary Sites · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘You wouldn’t be Beverly Gray if you were like other folks,’ Anne said, smiling. ‘I hope you won’t ever lose those beautiful ideals of yours. How anyone can be so romantic and such a dreamer in these modern times is beyond me,’ she added.”

These words were written by a teen-age Clair Blank in the early 1930s. Her heroine Beverly Gray is certainly a spirited girl, full of kindness, and possessing an optimism that I found refreshing, especially in these modern times. I never would have thought a novel written by a teen-age girl for teen girls 90 years ago would be such a joy for an old man to read so many years later.

Beverly and her friends are in their first year of college, studying and playing hard, and finding adventure at every turn. There’s some danger too, which Beverly navigates through with her strength of character and intelligence. I had an absolute ball reading this book. I could sense Clair Blank’s enjoyment of writing on almost every page.

A special thanks to my buddy, Bobby, for introducing me to this series.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old favorite series that I inherited from my mother. Beverly Gray, our heroine, is heading off for her first year in college. Set in the 1930s, a lot of the material feels quaint. Dorm life was strict. Dinner at 6, free time until 8 or 8:30, study time until 9:30 and lights our at 10:00. Yikes! Kids these days don't have this much structure at home! But while some of it is silly and a little too starry-eyed, reading these adventures takes me back to a good place in my childhood.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that this book was more like the Grace Harlowe or Marjorie Dean series than Nancy Drew. For 1934, it features a lot of the same plot structure and women's college themes that showed up twenty years earlier, even down to the group of eight best friends from high school. Really good, but much less modern than I was expecting!

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve owned this book for years but just picked it up this week. I enjoyed it very much! It’s fun to delve in to a simpler time.

[Sigridur Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Er að endurlesa allan flokkinn. Þriðja stjarnan er eingöngu vegna nostalgíunnar. Hefði gefið þeim 4-5 stjörnur þegar ég var 10 ára.

[Melinda Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Innocent enough for my preteen grands to read, yet fun and adventurous.

[Donna Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book my Mom had. She had several of them and I had never read any. So I thought I would. I enjoyed it, simple reading, no big scandal, love story. Nothing that I had to really think about to understand. Fun.

[Laura Bang · Rating 3 out of 5]

First-year college student Beverly Gray flits from one improbable circumstance to another. Beverly is a bit too much of a Mary Sue to be appealing, but it's still a fun read (for the laughs at all the ridiculous things that happen to her!). I liked the (sadly too few) times when the narrative was a bit sarcastic -- e.g., "Professor Adams, old Eagle-eye, as she was fondly (?) called by her students..."

[Kaitlyn Dunnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm rereading these just for fun. This was my favorite girls' series when I was young, even though they were written well before I was born. The English teacher/editor in me recognizes "poor" writing--too many adverbs, passive voice, etc. etc.--but the young teen who still lives inside me remembers the many hours of pleasurable reading and how much Clair Blank and her character, Beverly Gray, had to do with inspiring me to become a writer, too.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This follows Beverly Gray in her freshman year at Vernon College. Some quite unbelievable things happen to her and she is a little too self-deprecating. The unbelievable things make for some amusement.

[LuAnn]

Overall, a fun though unbelievable story of well-to-do girls at an exclusive women’s college in the 30s. As far as syntax, grammar, semantics, style, etc, this is very well-written, flowing smoothly along. The dialogue follows logical, natural patterns within the context of the story. The characters, other than the protagonist and her roommate aren’t well-distinguished which may change as the series progresses.

However, the situations Beverly finds herself in are extremely dramatic and dangerous and the outcome pushing belief. I take it that the author doesn’t know much about bears or basketball, given the timing of the former and the strange vocabulary and scoring of the latter, unless the sport has changed drastically since 1934. And the young people’s actions in the snow storm sound foolish.

I’m wondering how the other books come across given that the author didn’t travel to the places depicted.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beverly and her friend Anne are disappointed that they can't be roommates; instead Beverly's is a girl named Shirley, who doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with her. Despite this Beverly makes plenty of friends, both among the other freshman, and with some of the juniors. But the story is odd, the plot uneven, almost as if the author thought a school-based story couldn't be interesting enough so she a dramatic adventure in the middle.

[Tisha (IG: Bluestocking629) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fabulous! A College Freshman - Beverly Gray. Beverly is not just a college student. She's freaking She-ra Princess of Power!

***Please Note: At this time the description that Goodreads has for this book is completely incorrect. That description belongs to another book. Beverly surely would have loved a treehouse, alas she had none.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is *a lot* going on here (hermits and fires and kidnappings, oh my) and, yes, Beverly is queen of the Mary Sues. And yet I find these books oddly appealing.
3.5 stars

[Kirsten Elson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great for an avid reader of age 8-10, equally fun to read at age 48!

Re-read in 2016!