Customer Reviews

The Red Trailer Mystery (Trixie Belden #2)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The good news is that Jim Frayne has indeed inherited money from his great uncle and will have a new guardian appointed. The bad news is that he left Sleepyside before he could find out. So Trixie, Honey, and her governess, Miss Trask, set out in the Wheeler's trailer to find him. The first night out, they stop next to a mysterious red trailer. The family stays inside with the curtains closed. When they arrive in upstate New York, they learn that trailer thieves are operating in the area. Will Trixie and Honey be able to find Jim before he leaves New York for good? What is going on in that mysterious trailer? And have the girls stumbled on the thieves' hide out?

This book picks up minutes after the first book in the series ended. This is unusual in kid's books, and I rather enjoyed it. There's enough of a recap that anyone new to the story will feel right at home, although it's obviously best to read book 1 first.

The first time I read the story, I knew the ultimate outcome of their search for Jim. However, the sub-plots kept me interested the whole way through. Trixie and Honey are more themselves then in the last book. And, like the last book, so much happens that it's hard to put the book down. This book also contains one of my all time favorite scenes from the series. I always laugh when Trixie and Honey are trapped in the loft by Al. Honey especially is funny while being perfectly in character.

Julie Campbell took her time setting up the characters and events of the series, so these first books are really needed to fully enjoy what follows. But that's no trouble since they are so much fun to read. I've been reading them for years, and I don't plan to stop in the near future.

Thirteen-year-old Trixie Belden, and her best friend, Honey Wheeler, couldn't have been more upset when their new acquaintance, Jim Frayne, ran away from Sleepyside, in the hopes that he would not be caught by his abusive stepfather. Unfortunately, Jim took off right before Trixie had the chance to tell him that he was the heir to a huge fortune. Now Trixie and Honey, along with Honey's Governess, are on a trailer trip through upstate New York to locate Jim. However, during their trip they meet up with a family in a red trailer, who couldn't look more upset, and when their eleven-year-old daughter runs off through the woods, Trixie and Honey decide to try and find her as well. But when the two girls meet up with a couple of trailer thieves, they have to try and save themselves, protect all trailer owners, get the trailer thieves arrested, and find Jim and the lost little girl before it's too late. If only the two girls had known that their little trailer trip would turn out to be so full of surprises.

I am a longtime reader of the NANCY DREW series, so when I stumbled across the TRIXIE BELDEN series, I knew that I had to give it a try. I read the first book in the series a few months ago, and loved it, so I decided to get the second book in the series. To my surprise, I loved it even more than the first. Julie Campbell is a marvelous storyteller, whose characters couldn't be more fun and exciting to read about. Trixie is an upbeat girl, who is always getting into trouble; while Honey is more shy, but at the same time loves a good mystery. Fans of mysteries will adore Trixie Belden, and find themselves grappling to read the next book in the series.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

As a young girl (like seven years ago!), my mom pulled out a box from the attic when I showed an interest in reading. In the box were the first fifteen Trixie books. I have treasured them dearly. Number 2 is still my favorite! I have enjoyed reading and collecting the rest of the set. I have only 3 left to find! - Julie Major

The Red Trailer Mystery is one of the best in this series. Readers should read "The Secret of the Mansion" before Red Trailer Mystery, as Red Trailer is a continuation of the story line begun in Secret. When I was a pre-teen & young teen, I devoured all Trixie Belden books. They are dated, but are still wonderful fun to read. The first 10 books in the series are by far the best. Trixie is a strong character and a very positive role model for young girls.

This was my favorite Trixie Belden mystery, and continues where the Secret Mansion story leaves off. Trixie and Honey head off in search for Jim Frayne in Honey's trailer "The Silver Swan" with Honey's governess. Their goal? Find Jim before his stepfather Jonesy does, and before Jim leaves for good. The Red Trailer actually refers to the mystery of a down-trodden family living in a red trailer they encounter along the way. Of course, this mystery is linked to Jim, too.

Elements in this story that should appeal to pre-teens include: horseback riding, visiting summer camps, the independence of travelling in a trailer, and problem-solving.

I'm really pleased to see these books being reissued, with the original illustrations by Mary Stevens. They're so nostalgic, and a delight to read. I always enjoyed Julie Campbell's Trixie the best, but hope the other books in the series will be released, too.

I recommend this book series of Trixie Belden: The Red Trailer Mystery. It's a story of Trixie Belden and her new best friend Honey Wheeler who just moved up the street from Trixie house.This story is about their friend Jim who ran away, but through the process of this mystery these two run into many different problems.
This story takes place on a farm, but then they have to go to save Jim who ran away.While they are on their rescue trip to save Jim they meet a girl their age, who also runs away because of her parents. So now they have to find two people to find. But one of the problems on this trip is that when they try to solve one problem, they just run into another.
I highly recommend this book to everyone because it has great mysteries to be solved. So if you like great mystery books then I would recommend you buy this book series of Trixie Belden.

This book is the direct sequel to Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion, which really must be read first. On the quest to find Jim -- on the lam from his evil stepfather Jonsey -- Trixie, Honey, and Miss Trask arrive in the Autoville trailer park, and the girls eventually find the dual mysteries of Jim's whereabouts and a stolen red trailer converging in one area of countryside.

The Red Trailer Mystery does get confusing and could have used a map, but the author summarizes the action periodically, and it sounds natural and helps develop the reader's comprehension and critical thinking.

I think this series gave me an appreciation in my adult life for the benefits of family, community, and enduring friendships.

I loved this book when I was a kid. I loved the fact that Jim got his inheritance but didn't know it because he had fled, and that Trixie and Honey, with the help of an adult, set out to find Jim, encountering a red trailer with a mystery en route. The idea of being able to leave home in the company of an adult who wasn't a parent intrigued me, as did the search for Jim and the mystery of the red trailer.

If you read the first six Trixie Belden books in order, it's fun watching the characters interrelate and see how the books connect to one another. This fabric of life is a pleasure to read in any series: it's done well in the Trixie Belden books.

I revisited the Trixie Belden series because a friend recently gave me a copy of one where the gang went to England. I was hooked and wanted to find out how Trixie and Honey met. I purchased The Secret of the Mansion, which left me up in the air when Jim went away at the end of the book

The Red Trailer Mystery answered the question of how Jim became a member of the Wheeler family. It has the added bonus to realize that people used to travel around in trailers back in 1950. I have been across the country in an RV recently and was surprised to learn how parks had the same amenities then as they do now.

One drawback is that the original cover actually had the red trailer on it. While the Wheeler's Silver Swan is important to the story because it is how Trixie and Honey, along with Honey's governess, moved around during their adventures, it was distracting to have the Swan, and not the red trailer, on the cover.

I never read this book as a child. I only read it when I was buying the Trixie Belden books for my daughter, thinking she would enjoy them. Wrong! But I enjoyed this one. I loved the character of Mary Smith, the farmer's wife. I could read the parts about her over and over. Definitely worth the price of the book! Of course, this is from an adult perspective. Still, I think kids will love her, too. Everyone has a female friend and/or relative just like her--fat and cuddly and verrry talkative!