Mystery in Marrakech by Betty Cavanna (1968)

The nine-hundred-year-old city of Marrakech appeared to Dizzy Driscoll very much as she had imagined it.  Medieval ramparts and ten great gates. Mosques with green-tiled domes and the wail of the muezzins calling the faithful. Even though she was visiting her roommate's family, Dizzy found her strange surroundings made her feel somewhat apprehensive.

Still she was unprepared when her vague fears were fulfilled, and her friend Felicia was spirited away from the city. Together with Rick, Felicia's brother, Dizzy set out on an anxious trip across the rugged Atlas Mountains to find help. Their journey led them finally to the ancient Casbah of Telouet, a cluster of ghostly spires reaching into the sky that seemed to emanate evil like a witch's castle in a fairy tale. What would they find concealed in its deserted 600 rooms?

Betty Cavanna, who has taken two extensive trips to Morocco, is a favorite author of young people's books. An exciting mystery plot against the striking Moroccan background makes this colorful adventure one of her most appealing stories. (from the inside flap)

Second Best by Barbara Clayton (1963)

Lucy Ritchard felt that she was always second best.  Her older sister Meg excelled scholastically and socially, her younger brother Brad was a baseball star, and to everyone in Berkshire, Massachusetts, Lucy was sure she was known as "the undistinguished Ritchard girl." Because Lucy and Matador, her golden retriever who is always recovering the wrong things, are involved in calamity after calamity, Lucy's brother has sarcastically labelled her "Lucky Lucinda."

When Professor Ritchard decides to spend the summer months writing a geology textbook on the coast of Maine, Lucy is delighted.  In Maine she'll have a fresh start.  She'll feel different, be different, and--maybe--finally shed the hated badge of second best.

Despite Lucy's dreams, her mortifying introduction to the Kettle Cove Yacht Club starts the summer off on the wrong foot.  Determined to erase that first bad impression, Lucy agrees to take sailing lessons with the Commodore of the Club.  Too late she realizes that sailing involves more hard work and discipline than she had bargained for, and that all of her old difficulties have traveled along with her the four hundred miles from Berkshire to Kettle Cove, Maine, where first is all-important.

A nearly disastrous accident forces Lucy and Marsh Norton, one of the young crackerjack sailors at the Club, to work off together the cost of the damages they have caused. Then, strange lights and happenings on spooky Witchpaw Light tempt the two of them to investigate the deserted island lighthouse and unravel a tantalizing mystery.

Labor Day brings the last exciting race, and as the summer of work, sailing, and racing on Penobscot Bay comes to an end, Lucy finds some of  the answers to her problems.  She discovers one important area where she can be first--and stay first! Armed with this new understanding, Lucy is ready for the return to Berkshire, confident that in the future she can be other than Second Best. (from the inside flap)

Jenny Kimura by Betty Cavanna (1964)

Wearing her kimono, Jenny faced her American grandmother and Alan. Her entrance was as theatrical as if she had planned it for the stage. Alan, the Kansas City boy who was showing Jenny so much flattering attention, liked her thoroughly Japanese appearance. But Mrs. Smith, her grandmother, was horrified to see her dressed so inappropriately for an afternoon wedding.

Mrs. Smith had invited her granddaughter to visit her in the United States, but Jenny, whose mother was Japanese and whose father was American, did not know how to please her domineering grandmother. As the summer flew by, it took even more than an intolerant attitude on the part of Alan's mother to show Mrs. Smith that her own outlook was also biased. All Jenny could do was follow her father's advise and be herself, however difficult that might be.

In this tender and thoughtful story, Jenny compares Kansas City and then Cape Cod to her home in Tokyo, giving readers the unique opportunity to see their country through another's eyes, and Betty Cavanna demonstrates again her complete understanding of the minds of young people. (from the inside flap)

A Girl Can Dream by Betty Cavanna (1948)

"Tomboy" Loretta Larkin excels in sports, but privately envies her popular blonde high school classmate, Elsie Wynn.  When the new local airport announces an essay contest with flying lessons as the tempting prize, Rette decides to enter--and wins!  She finds that learning to solo can be a way to not-soloing the prom.

TAB Club members voted heavily in favor of Betty Cavanna.  She writes of teen-agers with sure understanding of their inner lives and the high school scene.  A Girl Can Dream was a Junior Literary Guild Selection.  Before writing it Miss Cavanna herself took flying lessons and learned about "stalls" and "spins" From a flying instructor not unlike Pat Creatore. (from the back cover)

Fancy Free by Betty Cavanna (1961)

Some fancies dissolve in thin air ...

Frivolous Francesca Jones decides on impulse to go with her archaeologist father to Peru for the summer.  Dr. Jones is taking a group of students on an expedition high in the Andes. Fancy begins to regret her decision as soon as she meets all these studious types, but by then the plane is in the air.

Used to a kind of lazy life, Fancy, once in Peru, is amazed to find her mind stretching along with her muscles, as she learns the difference between a boy with charm and a boy with character; the care and feeding of a baby llama; and how not only to get along with eggheads, but to like them!  (from the back cover)

Angel on Skis by Betty Cavanna (1957)

Angela gazed down at the powdery new snow with a rising sense of anticipation.  Frost had turned its surface into crystals that glittered in the sun like sequins. She knew exactly the light swishing sound her skis would make as they lifted it in a sparkling cloud. This was her world--a white world of snow and speed and excitement. But to enter it, Angela had traveled a hard road.

When her mother moved to Vermont to support the family by running a guesthouse for skiers, Angela knew there wasn't a penny to spare for buying skis. But that did not lessen her almost fanatic determination to learn to ski. How she really did learn is a major theme of this novel. Because the author is intimately acquainted with skiing techniques, it is completely authentic. Because she knows so well how to re-create the breathless wonder of the ski slopes, it is enchanting. But that is not all. Miss Cavanna's story is warm with the glow of happy family life, and shining with romance; for the ski trails lead Angela to the glory of first love. (from the inside flap)

6 on Easy Street by Betty Cavanna (1954)

The Sanford family of Haverford has inherited a small inn in Nantucket.  All of the family except sixteen-year-old Deborah are excited over the prospect of a summer spent in learning how to run the inn.  Deborah is in love--and she is unhappy about leaving attractive Craig Vale for the whole summer.

Each of the children has a job to do in the old inn, and Deborah waits on table. Her main ambition is to get enough money to visit Craig in July for a week at the shore in Jersey.  Very few of the guests leave tips, however, and she is forced to work out a different scheme for saving the money she needs.

How Deborah faces her problems during this summer is woven into a story of how a girl grows up.  While it is difficult for her to overcome her selfishness and face the need for becoming mature, Deborah finds by the time the summer is over that her stay in Nantucket has turned out to be one of the happiest times of her life.

There is good characterization in this story, and a delightful picture of a family who know how to live together in heartwarming comradeship.  There are glimpses into the thoughts and feelings of this family and their friends which are genuinely true to life, and bring the reader into acquaintance with real people.  And there is the authentic background of Nantucket to add extra interest, zest and color to the story. (from the inside flap)