Judy Bolton Information

The Judy Bolton Series is a distinctive Grosset & Dunlap offering. The first title, The Vanishing Shadow, was published in 1932; the last, #38, The Secret of the Sand Castle, in 1967. All the books in the series were written by one woman, Margaret Sutton, and she set her stories, all based on real events, in and around a small town in Pennsylvania, where Judy grows up, goes to high school, works as a legal secretary, marries, and, of course, solves mystery after wonderful mystery. One of the joys of reading this series in order is watching Judy and her really interesting circle of friends and acquaintances mature.

Judy herself is one of the best drawn of all the series heroines, and is described very well in The Girls' Series Companion, published by the Society of Phantom Friends: "[S]he has all emotions and insecurities of a real girl. She has good moral values and places friendship and equality first, yet she cannot help longing for the material wealth and acceptance of the 'in' crowd. Symbolic of this conflict are her two suitors, struggling lawyer Peter Dobbs and rich architect Arthur Farringdon-Pett."

Collecting the early titles in the series isn't at all difficult, but the later titles get progressively harder to find. The last five, which were issued in green spine picture cover format, are rare and expensive. For information about a new title, The Talking Snowman, co-authored by Margaret Sutton and Linda Joy Singleton, or The Whispering Belltower, by Kate Emburg, click on the titles.

The primary "Judy Bolton" reference book is "Clarke's Guide to Margaret Sutton's Judy Bolton Mystery Stories," written by Laurie A. Clarke, and published by SynSine Press in 1995. Below, I've given a very rough outline of Judy formats, set out in detail in "Clarke's Guide":

The best clue to exact printing, given the above basic guidelines, is the title listing on the dust jacket (as G&D almost always advertised the latest title in print.) The title listing inside can be helpful also, but is less exactly up to date. Thus, if you have a Judy #1 in red tweed, listing to #23 (Black Cat's Clue), you have a 1952 printing (or close to that). The copyright dates aren't as important as with the Nancy Series, but there were a few revised Judy's issued in the green pc format. Even after the new titles came out in "wrap dj" the reprints were, as with the Nans, issued with the white-spine dj.

The table below is a listing of all the original titles in the Judy Bolton Series, with their dates of publication. For more information about a particular title, just click on the number of that title.

Title	Date Published
1. The Vanishing Shadow	1932
2. The Haunted Attic	1932
3. The Invisible Chimes	1932
4. Seven Strange Clues	1932
5. The Ghost Parade	1933
6. The Yellow Phantom	1933
7. The Mystic Ball	1934
8. The Voice in the Suitcase	1935
9. The Mysterious Half Cat	1936
10. The Riddle of the Double Ring	1937
11. The Unfinished House	1938
12. The Midnight Visitor	1939
13. The Name on the Bracelet	1940
14. The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt	1941
15. The Mark on the Mirror	1942
16. The Secret of the Barred Window	1943
17. The Rainbow Riddle	1946
18. The Living Portrait	1947
19. The Secret of the Musical Tree	1948
20. The Warning on the Window	1949
21. The Clue of the Stone Lantern	1950
22. The Spirit of Fog Islandf	1951
23. The Black Cat's Clue	1952
24. The Forbidden Chest	953
25. The Haunted Road	1954
26. The Clue in the Ruined Castle	1955
27. The Trail of the Green Doll	1956
28. The Haunted Fountain	1957
29. The Clue of the BrokenWing	1958
30. The Phantom Friend	1959
31. The Discovery at Dragon's Mouth	1960
32. The Whispered Watchword	1961
33. The Secret Quest	1962
34. The Puzzle in the Pond	1963
35. The Hidden Clue	1964
36. The Pledge of the Twin Knights	1965
37. The Search for the Glowing Hand	1966
38. The Secret of the Sand Castle	1967