The series follows the adventures of Marjorie Wilkinson and the other members of the Girl Scouts Pansy troop of Miss Allen's school. Miss Allen's school is located somewhere in the general area near Philadelphia, not surprising since the author, Edith Lavell, lived in Philadelphia.
At the beginning of the series, Marjorie Wilkinson and Ruth Henry arrive at Miss Allen's school as incoming freshmen. At this time, the two girls are best friends, but they soon become rivals due to Ruth's jealousy. During volumes one through five, Ruth plays tricks on Marjorie in order to cripple Marjorie's achievements as a Girl Scout. Ruth's pranks gradually become worse and worse until they reach the level of criminal activity. Ruth is a very vicious young lady. Ruth is only present in volumes one through five.
In volume six, Marjorie and her friends graduate from Miss Allen's school. Marjorie graduates from college at the beginning of volume ten. By the end of volume ten, nine years have passed since the beginning of the series. Such a great amount of time passes because most of the books take place during the girls' summer vacations. In most cases, each book begins a year after the end of the last book so that very little time is actually spent in school.
This series has a very large amount of Girl Scout lore. Edith Lavell was a Girl Scouts Director in Philadelphia and only someone with a vast amount of knowledge about the Girl Scouts would be able to place such a large amount of information in the books.
The books in this series are rather scarce, both with and without dust jackets. The last few titles are the hardest to find. Volume one also seems to be one of the harder to find volumes, which I am at a loss to explain. Volume three may be the easiest to find volume. The bare books usually sell for $5.00 to $10.00, and the books with intact dust jackets sell for around $25.00 to $75.00.
Summaries
Book and Dust Jacket Gallery
My Girl Scouts series blog posts
