Five's a Crowd

Campbell Family #4

by Janet Lambert

After an eventful year of school and college - a new experience for Josie and Sandra Campbell - the girls find themselves on their way to Haiti, where they are to join their parents and sail the Pakhoi, the family's Chinese junk, to New York.

Accompanied by Anna Harding McCabe, Jay Stagliano, and to Josie's annoyance, Scott Maitland, they fly to Haiti, only to learn that their parents have sold the Pakhoi and are talking of taking the family to Aruba! Sandra and Josie see their hopes of settling in Wallaceville, Indiana, and going to school like other young people go up in the air. This provokes Sandra, usually so calm and understanding, to tell her bewildered parents how selfishly they are behaving.

How the family resolves its problems to the satisfaction of all, and leaves the troubled country they all come to love, is a story only Janet Lambert could tell. No one who is acquainted with the irrepressible Campbells will want to miss this book.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Janet Lambert, born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was a popular girls' story author from 1941 through 1969 (and beyond to today). She wrote 54 books during that time about a number of different girls and their families. Her most popular series were about the Parrishes and the Jordons. These stories, and many of her other series, became entwined as the various characters met each other, married, and then had children of their own!

Janet, having an interest in both the theater and writing, decided to write her own plays in which to act. She did achieve her goal and appeared on Broadway. When she married a career Army officer, her life on stage came to a close, but her stories were still flowing. Knowing well the "life of the Army," many of Ms. Lambert's books are set on Army posts throughout the United States.

Legend has it that her stories started as bedtime stories for her children while they were overseas. Each night, the author would tell the next "installment" of the series. Later, after her kids were grown, she penned one of her stories (Star Spangled Summer) and—according to legend—it was sold to a publisher the very day after she sent it to them.

Reviews

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I don't always agree with their ideas about certain things (dating for one), I can't help loving this odd family. They have their problems, but they always work things out. Josie and Sandra, along with their friends Anna (Mike), Jay and Scott, head down to Haiti to help Dr. and Mrs. Campbell sail the Pakhoi (their houseboat) up to New York, but when they arrive they discover major changes that leaves Sandra in tears and Josie not sure what to do. But things work out. They always do in the Campbell family.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josie and Sandra expected to spend the summer in Haiti with their parents, but when they arrived, they found that Papa had sold the old junk which had been their home for the past few years - would they have to go travelling again or would they ever have a settled future? And would it be the future so clearly imagined by their friends Scott and Jay?

This was my first Janet Lambert: a pleasant family/teen story from a series world which reminded me of Elsie Janette Oxenham: you’re plunged into the middle of a world that probably means more if you already know Josie and Sandra and their family and friends from previous adventures. The family drama is well done, and this is also a world where boys want to ‘go steady’ but Josie and Sandra, conscious of the effect their wandering upbringing has had, want to have a settled background but to be able to try their wings at life. Also interesting to see Haiti through the eyes of young Americans at this historical moment - some attitudes typical of the time are expressed along with some ideas which aren’t party political but do present young readers with a point of view on Haiti beyond its scenery that Eisenhower and Kennedy would have approved of.