My mom’s oldest sister worked for a publisher which had it’s own discount bookstore and employees got a discount. Knowing that I loved to read, she’d browse through there and get me some books. While many of them didn’t quite hit, the Trixie Belden’s did.
I remember getting them the first year. My mom had told her how I loved Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators and Phyllis A. Whitney. Unfortunately, they didn’t publish those. So my aunt got the next closest thing. Trixie Belden. Which, to my young eyes looked a bit young for my reading taste. I have to admit to being a bit insulted. However, I read them, because they were books and they were gifts. As it turned out, yes, Trixie was targeted for readers younger than I was at the time, but they were fun mysteries.
And I grew to love them. I still have most of them, though I’ve wondered about selling them. Unfortunately, they aren’t classic titles and covers and Trixie has been re-released over the years. So I keep them and think that someday I’ll reread them but I haven’t gotten to it yet. But maybe the right time will come around when I want to slip back into another era and be a child again. A smart child who figures out mysteries.