A little while ago, this post reminded me of a favorite series from my childhood: The Mandie Books. I picked up the first book at my grandparent's house. She didn't even know why she had it laying there. I read it and was drawn in. There was only one book, so I wait to wait for each new episode to come out...and as I result, I sort of grew up with Mandie. In every book she finds a mystery to solve, accompanied by her good friends Joe Woodard and Celia Hamilton. And at some tense moment in every book, Mandie gains courage from her favorite verse: "At what time I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee."
Since the Mandie series was floating closer to the surface of my thoughts, on a recent trip to the library I decided to look up the author and the series to see how much the series had grown. (My Mandie addiction fell off in my high school years). That's when I discovered that my beloved childhood author passed away in October!
I immediately did two things: Checked to see how many books I was missing from the Mandie collection, and scour the internet to see if Mandie and Joe end up happily married at the end of the the last book (because the further along the series went, that was the biggest question I needed to be answered).
I have 36 of the 40 books, so well done there. But alas, there's no Mandie/Joe resolution. In fact, apparently there's a new potential love interest in the Mandie Goes to College "series" (only one book was ever finished)! I can't tell you how much this upsets me. Joe is fantastic. He's constantly saving Mandie's skin and then giving her the credit for solving the mystery. If she runs off with some college guy, then she's missing out on (and messing up) a fantastic childood-sweetheart opportunity. That's just not allowed!
Do you ever change storylines in your own personal literary world? Because in my Mandie universe, Joe will always have his place as the knight in shining armor.
3 comments:
There's no resolution? That's super frustrating. I think you should just figure that the author always intended for Mandie and Joe to end up together, but that she just ran out of time to get the story to that point. That's what I would go with anyway. *** At this point would just like to insert a quick PSA to all authors--Please be kind enough to finish your story before you die or leave detailed notes behind so that your fans will know what happens. Thank You! ***
Oh, and I never read the Mandie books, which I guess is a little strange since that's my name and all.
I stumbled across your blog when I googled "How does the Mandie series end?" I was just talking with my boyfriend last night how they were my favorite books as a kid and I wanted to know if Mandie and Joe ever got together. I too quit reading them as I got into high school. Now we'll never know. I had no idea the author passed away. I am pretty upset that we'll never know.
Ahhh! I was just talking to my husband about these books (because they are making movies of them now), and how I want my daughter to read them. I too was looking to see if Mandie and Joe end up together, and am so disappointed!
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