can't believe how racist this was after being a fan as a child!

"We must never forget to do a kindness when we can."

This is a much more childish version of the Bobbsey twin books, more like a Mary Poppins book, to be honest.

My biggest takeaway was that, apparently people thought if you jump roped too much you would die? So that's a thing, I guess.

mysterious and thrilling

Severely marred by the caricatures of black people, but I loved the whole series as a child. This one's about a summer trip by train to a family farm. The circus comes to town while they are there.

I am aware that these stories don't come across too well through 21st century eyes. Thinking in terms of when they were written they are quite enlightened. This is an upper middle class family with a prosperous business, a large house with servants and a houseboat. The father is able to take off at

I guess the twins' cousins show up more in these earlier books than I thought. Another fun adventure on cousin Harry's farm. I especially like Freddie's "zebra". Fun learning a little about homing pigeons, too. Oh, and I loved the dancing bears.

I read the 1915 edition as a 50 something adult. I cannot imagine a 21st century child reading this today. It was, I’m sure, quite delightful in its day, but the sexism and racism (yes, I know the times were different) were pretty hard to take. I’m chalking it up to a history lesson.

The 1963 edition is VERY different from the 1915 edition. They should be treated separately.

There is no real mystery in this book. It appears to be about two sets of over privileged twins whose family appears to always be on holiday or vacation. I found myself hate reading this book. I absolutely loathed the twin Freddie and his obsession with his toy fire truck. Something tells me the boo