Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing what he read made him mad.
--George Bernard Shaw

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Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading.
--Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs

Stories never really end. They can go on and on. It's just that sometimes, at a certain point, one stops telling them.
--Mary Norton, The Borrowers

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.
--J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Mr. Cobb took me into his library and showed me his books, of which he has a complete set.
--Ring Lardner

Side by Side by Side: Three's Company

"It's too bad! Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly always played so nicely. Two little girls often do play nicely, but just let a third one come around...." And they stopped, and their silence sounded as though they were saying: "then the trouble begins!" (Betsy-Tacy and Tib, p. 2)

Threesomes may sometimes be a problem in the real world, but amicable trios are not infrequent in the world of juvenile series books, where heroines are often the center of a group of three--a structure that reinforces the idea of the heroine as a leader--as a brief examination of four series trios will illustrate.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are a prime example of a well-functioning trio, with the three girls tending to be distinct but complementary personalities, all well-delineated and fleshed-out characters. Already friends, Betsy and Tacy welcome Tib into their world when she moves to Deep Valley, though she sometimes seems a bit of an afterthought and an outsider (she and her family even move away temporarily during her high school years). As the practical, matter-of-fact one, Tib often mentions something that Betsy and Tacy would prefer to ignore when Betsy is creating some fanciful scheme (e.g., "It was just like Tib to dig up this unsuccessful venture," Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, p. 31). But, as is often repeated, Betsy and Tacy "liked her anyway." Betsy, with her vivid imagination, is the leader and Tacy and Tib the loyal followers ("Betsy loved to think up things to do, and Tacy and Tib loved to do them," Betsy-Tacy and Tib, p. 3).

Sue, Kit, and Connie

Another trio that seems to comprise basically equal partners appears in Helen Dore Boylston's Sue Barton series. Sue Barton, Kit van Dyke, and Connie Halliday band together as new nursing school students. Though each girl is presented as having her own strengths, still, Sue is the clear leader, and Kit and Connie often act like Sue's satellites and personal cheering section. For example, when Sue decides to go to New York City to become a visiting nurse, Kit, who previously had shown no inclination to public health nursing, eagerly joins Sue; later, when Sue moves to New Hampshire, Kit doggedly follows her there as well. After Connie marries, her place in the trio is basically filled by Marianna Lawson, a waif whom Sue and Kit befriend, though Marianna is younger and clearly in a subsidiary role to them; Marianna, too, moves from New York to New Hampshire simply because of Sue.

Cherry, Ann, and Gwen

In the Cherry Ames books by Helen Wells and Julie Tatham, Cherry is the unofficial leader of the so-called Spencer Club of eight nurses and forms a subset with Ann Evans (serious and mature) and Gwen Jones (fun-loving and slightly offbeat); when Ann marries, Josie Franklin (timid and mousy) steps into the threesome (primarily in the Julie Tatham titles). As in the Betsy-Tacy books, Cherry's leadership is largely based on her ability to come up with ideas--some of which have unexpected consequences.

Cherry propped herself up on one elbow, wound and rewound one jet black curl around her finger. "I--think--I--have an idea."

"Watch out, kids," Gwen said. "Ames is having an idea. Stand back to avoid the explosion." (Cherry Ames, Flight Nurse, p. 67)

Cherry is always presented as slightly above the other members of her group, even in a professional capacity. She is promoted to chief nurse, though Ann's been studying diligently while Cherry's been breaking army regulations; she is Gwen and Josie's boss when they all work at a rest home. Incredibly, no one ever seems to become jealous of her. The friendships here seem to reflect shared experiences rather than deep emotional connections.

Nancy, Bess, and George

Probably the longest-running trio in series books consists of Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, and George Fayne. Bess is stereotypically feminine, boy-crazy, and timid; George is her opposite, a tomboy who is athletic, adventurous, and generally exasperated by the trappings of femininity. Nancy is the embodiment of the best qualities of each of the other two: beautiful, modest, and feminine, but never hesitating to take charge and plunge headlong into adventure. Though Bess and George frequently bicker with each other, they both always defer to Nancy.

There is nothing subtle about Nancy's leadership and superiority; consider this passage, when Bess (initially called Elizabeth) and George are first introduced in the series:

Elizabeth was noted for always doing the correct thing at the correct time. Though she lacked the dash and vivacity of her cousin [George], she was better looking and dressed with more care and taste. Yet, had a stranger entered the room, he undoubtedly would have looked first at Nancy Drew, for though she could not be termed beautiful, her face was more interesting than that of either of her companions. (The Secret at Shadow Ranch, p. 4)

But it is not just appearance; Nancy is better at doing things than Bess and George (and just about everyone else!). For example, again in The Secret at Shadow Ranch, when the girls are going riding, Bess has great difficulty mounting her pony, who nips her shoulder and shies away; she tries to mount from the wrong side; she gets her foot caught in the stirrup and hops along comically as the pony moves away: the ranch foreman is disgusted and the watching cowboys laugh. George fares better and "though somewhat lacking in grace, managed to vault into the saddle without assistance" (p. 35). Nancy, who is given the most spirited, temperamental pony to ride, "vaulted lightly into the saddle, and the foreman nodded in approval as he saw that she was well able to take care of herself" (p. 34); the same cowboys who chuckled at Bess "watched [Nancy] admiringly as she galloped about the field" (p. 35).

There's nothing of equality in the Nancy-Bess-George group; the group dynamic is a far cry from the more genuine friendship patterns of the other trios considered, though in each case the heroine is, not surprisingly, the leader of the pack.

Sources:
Keene, Carolyn. Nancy Drew: The Secret at Shadow Ranch. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1931.
Lovelace, Maud Hart. The Betsy-Tacy Treasury. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Wells, Helen. Cherry Ames, Flight Nurse. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1945.

Authors and Booksfor Children

Authors and Books
for Children