Series Spotlight: Jenny Dean Series by Todd H. Latoski
What do you get when you mix Nancy Drew with Tom Swift, and throw in a bit of X-Files just for the fun of it? Well, you get Jenny Dean, that’s what! The Jenny Dean Science Fiction Mysteries were written by Dale Bick Carlson, who is the author of over fifty books, adult and young adult, fiction and nonfiction. She has received three ALA Notable Book Awards, and the Christopher Award, and she has written novels and psychology books for young adults, and general adult nonfiction. Carlson has lived and taught in the Far East: India, Indonesia, China, and Japan. More information about the author and her works can be found
here.
The Jenny Dean books are a series of four “science fiction mysteries” published in hardback, picture-cover format by Grosset & Dunlap in the early 1980s. In the introduction, Ms. Carlson gives credit to her daughter, Hannah, who “edits all [her] current books, and also provides [her] favorite heroines. She is particularly the heroine of the Jenny Dean Science Fiction Mysteries.” Her son, Danny, co-authored the first book of the Jenny Dean series. Each book contains 15 or 16 chapters and is approximately 133 to 136 pages in length. The covers are painted by Gino D’Achille, and there are a number of internal illustrations in each book by Suzanne Richardson. The endpapers in both the front and back of each book are a somewhat detailed map of Winter Falls, giving placement to the Dean house, the Ward farm, the high school, the Harper mansion, and basically all of the places that Jenny visits while solving the mysteries in the four book series.
In the first book of the series, The Mystery of the Shining Children, we are introduced to Jenny Dean, the young daughter of veterinarian, Dr. Howard Dean, and his wife, famed psychologist, Dr. Gwen Dean. Jenny, despite her age, is well respected by the community and she is so good at noticing and understanding people’s quirks, behavior, odd bits of speech and mannerisms, that her mother, friends, and even the police captain often sought her advice. She and her friend, Mike Ward, find themselves seeking to uncover the truth behind their friends’ mysteriously changed demeanor and their oddly-glowing skin. Jenny believes that Dr. Eric Morden, a research scientist that is developing a cure for a strange disease known as Fossil Virus, is doing immoral things in his research and has somehow affected her friends in Winter Falls. With Mike’s help, they uncover an insidious plot that places not just her friends, but all of Winter Falls in grave danger!
The concluding pages of the first book leads right into the second book, when Jenny’s father informs her that mysterious wild game holes, which are forbidden in Winter Falls, have been causing injuries to local citizens. Jenny is immediately intrigued by The Mystery of the Hidden Trap and sets off to solve the case! She soon discovers that a young local boy was seen at the scene of the hidden trap that seriously injured an older man who was walking through the woods. When a second and third trap are sprung, Jenny begins to suspect the mystery behind the traps is something more sinister, particularly when she discovers the boy at the scene is not a single boy – not even two or three boys – but actually quadruplets! She contacts a mysterious Dr. Hesse, who experimented with genetics, but he becomes hostile when he realizes she has made the connection between the boys. After the doctor is injured himself in a hidden trap, Jenny sets out to discover once and for all who has set all the traps – and what she ultimately discovers is an evil plot involving mind control and hypnosis with the villain behind it all being the most unlikely of all suspects!
Having cracked her second case, Jenny is due some rest and relaxation. But even as her friends invite her to go camping near the old Aba Dablam estate, she is led directly into her third adventure, The Secret of the Third Eye. When Jenny and Mike go camping, Jenny finds herself mysteriously drawn to the old Aba Dablam estate, where she discovers that the owner’s grandson, now calling himself Padme Lampo, as he is a Grand Lama possessing amazing mental powers – which are controlled by his third eye in his forehead (which Jenny discovers is actually a ruby surgically placed there). His mental powers, however, are very real, as he quickly proves to Jenny through telepathic communication and levitation! But someone in Winter Falls is determined to exploit this young Lama and it’s up to Jenny and her friends to stop them! Not one, but two kidnappings ultimately lead Jenny to the truth and help her to expose the villain for the greedy exploiter that he is!
With three cases so quickly behind her, Jenny ponders her Thanksgiving trip to a cousin who lives on the plains of Kansas. Thinking about the cyclones that took poor Dorothy to Oz, Jenny wonders if she will have any adventure such as that – which, of course she does in the last book of the series, The Secret of the Invisible City! When Jenny stumbles on an invisible barrier, she is determined to uncover its source – only, she never expects what she finds! An entire crystalline city whose inhabitants are aliens from beyond the Andromeda galaxy! Everything within this alien city that is invisible to the naked eye seems perfect and peaceful – but as Jenny soon finds out, all is not as it seems! Each time she visits, she returns with no idea of how she got to the city and how she was returned home! Then, when she discovers they have been siphoning information from her mind, she worries as to the reason. But when her friends, Mike, Laurie, Joe, and even the police chief, are brought to Krishna-la, she begins to suspect they are not guests, but prisoners! Jenny and her friends overcome their fears to discover Krishna-la’s greatest secret – and what it means for them!
This series is quite unique, to say the least. The similarities to Nancy Drew are there – a young, female lead character in her teens who is always stumbling into one mystery after another, with friends always ready to help her solve the mystery; a police chief that smiles on her sleuthing capabilities; doting parents (yes, Jenny has both alive) that give her unlimited freedom; she even faces the same foibles (i.e., notes telling her to stay away from the mystery if she knows what is good for her!), and a knack for getting herself out of every situation. The Jenny Dean series, however, goes way beyond Nancy in other aspects, as it is made clear in every book that not only do her father (a veterinarian) and her mother (a psychologist) seek their daughter’s advice on client matters, but the police chief often turns to Jenny (a sixteen year old girl!) for help and advice! Further, Jenny is quick to accept mind control, genetic manipulation, telepathy, and aliens without the slightest hint of disbelief! It’s easy to believe this series to be a mix of Nancy Drew and Tom Swift, with bit of X-Files thrown in for good measure (except that these books came out long before the X-Files hit the air).
If you like your mysteries to be “out there” and a bit on the unusual side, then this series is definitely one you’ll enjoy!
In the first book of the series, The Mystery of the Shining Children, we are introduced to Jenny Dean, the young daughter of veterinarian, Dr. Howard Dean, and his wife, famed psychologist, Dr. Gwen Dean. Jenny, despite her age, is well respected by the community and she is so good at noticing and understanding people’s quirks, behavior, odd bits of speech and mannerisms, that her mother, friends, and even the police captain often sought her advice. She and her friend, Mike Ward, find themselves seeking to uncover the truth behind their friends’ mysteriously changed demeanor and their oddly-glowing skin. Jenny believes that Dr. Eric Morden, a research scientist that is developing a cure for a strange disease known as Fossil Virus, is doing immoral things in his research and has somehow affected her friends in Winter Falls. With Mike’s help, they uncover an insidious plot that places not just her friends, but all of Winter Falls in grave danger!
Having cracked her second case, Jenny is due some rest and relaxation. But even as her friends invite her to go camping near the old Aba Dablam estate, she is led directly into her third adventure, The Secret of the Third Eye. When Jenny and Mike go camping, Jenny finds herself mysteriously drawn to the old Aba Dablam estate, where she discovers that the owner’s grandson, now calling himself Padme Lampo, as he is a Grand Lama possessing amazing mental powers – which are controlled by his third eye in his forehead (which Jenny discovers is actually a ruby surgically placed there). His mental powers, however, are very real, as he quickly proves to Jenny through telepathic communication and levitation! But someone in Winter Falls is determined to exploit this young Lama and it’s up to Jenny and her friends to stop them! Not one, but two kidnappings ultimately lead Jenny to the truth and help her to expose the villain for the greedy exploiter that he is!
This series is quite unique, to say the least. The similarities to Nancy Drew are there – a young, female lead character in her teens who is always stumbling into one mystery after another, with friends always ready to help her solve the mystery; a police chief that smiles on her sleuthing capabilities; doting parents (yes, Jenny has both alive) that give her unlimited freedom; she even faces the same foibles (i.e., notes telling her to stay away from the mystery if she knows what is good for her!), and a knack for getting herself out of every situation. The Jenny Dean series, however, goes way beyond Nancy in other aspects, as it is made clear in every book that not only do her father (a veterinarian) and her mother (a psychologist) seek their daughter’s advice on client matters, but the police chief often turns to Jenny (a sixteen year old girl!) for help and advice! Further, Jenny is quick to accept mind control, genetic manipulation, telepathy, and aliens without the slightest hint of disbelief! It’s easy to believe this series to be a mix of Nancy Drew and Tom Swift, with bit of X-Files thrown in for good measure (except that these books came out long before the X-Files hit the air).
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