The Outdoor Girls in Army Service; Or, Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys

Hope, Laura LeeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
225K words
Chapters
23

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Campus LifeGrowing UpSocial ObservationFemale PerspectiveYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Outdoor Girls in Army Service; Or, Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys by HopeAuthor: Hope, Laura Lee,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2005

Editor's review

This is one volume in Laura Lee Hope's "Outdoor Girls" series, telling the story of several girls who devote themselves to army service in wartime and do their bit for soldiers. The work continues the author's approach to young-adult series fiction: clear character relationships, brisk plotting, and an emphasis on courage and cooperation, bearing a distinct mark of its era. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it offers an accessible sample for understanding gender roles, wartime mobilization, and civic participation in early twentieth-century American juvenile literature. The language is plain and the chapters are short, making it suitable for English learners as extensive reading and for readers studying series-fiction publishing culture and wartime juvenile literature. While reading, note how the book portrays women's participation in public affairs and its period limitations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the chapters in order and, after each, summarize in one sentence what the girls did.
  2. Note how the female characters act and jot down details that reflect period attitudes.
  3. Compare with other wartime juvenile books to observe series-fiction narrative patterns.
  4. Don't look up every new word; keep reading fluently first, then go back and review high-frequency vocabulary.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23

FAQ

Which book in the series is this, and must it be read in order? It belongs to the "Outdoor Girls" series. Series fiction usually has continuing characters but relatively independent plots, so reading this volume alone does not fundamentally hinder understanding. To fully appreciate changes in the characters' relationships, reading in publication order is smoother, but reading this one directly also works.
Do I need to know the war background in advance? Knowing the general historical background helps. The story involves wartime home-front service and support for soldiers, a common patriotic theme in juvenile literature of the time. Readers need not study the history specially; knowing this is popular fiction with period coloring and noting its limitations while reading is enough.
Is it suitable for practicing English reading? It is fairly suitable for intermediate learners. The language is plain, there is a lot of dialogue, the chapters are short, and the plot moves clearly, making it easy to finish. But the book contains early English expressions and period vocabulary; don't look up every new word—grasping the plot first better sustains interest in reading.

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About the author

Hope, Laura Lee Author

Laura Lee Hope is a collective pen name commonly used in early twentieth-century American children's literature, and public information about the actual authors behind it is limited. The name is mainly associated with series books produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, with works centered on adventure and everyday life for young readers. The library holds 65 of her works, including The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore, at Cedar Camp, in a Great City, and at School, as well as The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake, at Wild Rose Lodge, and of Deepdale, along with The Story of a Bold Tin Soldier. These stories feature simple language and brisk plots, emphasizing sibling affection, outdoor activities, and a spirit of exploration, and they portray lively, curious young characters, giving them a place in the history of American children's literature.