Books with author Wells Helen

Vicki Barr is a popular mystery series for girls published from 1947 to 1964. Helen Wells wrote volumes #1-4 and 9-16, and Julie Campbell Tatham, the creator of Trixie Belden, wrote volumes #5-8. Wells returned to write the series, but the last volume, The Brass Idol Mystery, though credited to Wells, is believed to have been written by Walter B. Gibson, the creator and writer of "The Shadow" and sometime author of the Biff Brewster series for boys."The Silver Ring Mystery" is the 13th book in the series.

Cherry has finally been discharged from the Army and is back to civilian life. What should she do next after her intense years of Army nursing? Dr. Joe finds her a job as the private nurse of a celebrated musician suffering from a dangerous heart condition. How can Cherry help him avoid the deadly stress his devoted sister unintentially causes when she visits fortuneteller after fortuneteller? Will their family secret be revealed?

In Chief Nurse, Cherry is whisked off to a new assignment on an island in the Pacific close to the battlefront -as Acting Chief Nurse! Colonel Pillsbee thinks she is too "young and pretty" to successfully supervise sixty nurses and 200 corpsmen. Can she do it? For the first time Cherry and the nurses of the Spencer unit have to work under fire, in a makeshift tent hospital uncomfortably close to the fighting. When the casualties pour in, the nurses and doctors work night and day, constantly under danger of attack by the Japanese. When the other Lieutenant Ames, Cherry's twin brother Charlie, is unexpectedly stationed nearby, Charlie and Cherry piece together the mystery behind the silence of an injured pilot - which involves a secret enemy weapon.

Cherry Ames is thrilled to be working in a picturesque ski resort town in the Swiss Alps. The town's only doctor has employed her to assist him in his ten-bed hospital. Within 24 hours after starting her new assignment, Cherry encounters a hostile, menacing patient who seeks emergency medical care at the hospital. A few days later, other suspicious persons turn up at the hotel where she is living, and Cherry finds herself deeply enmeshed in an unknown danger. Val Nicholas, a handsome ski instructor, helps Cherry to track down the source of the mysterious danger. Together, Val and Cherry undertake a perilous journey on skies, to protect her own life and to save the life of a sick man who is being victimized. It takes all of the vivacious and pretty young nurse's courage and stamina to expose an ingenious racket and trap a group of ruthless criminals.

In Senior Nurse, Cherry realizes that "a senior really must be a little more sober and responsible" - perhaps she should have warned the head nurse right away about the rabbit that had been smuggled into the pediatric ward. But the children had enjoyed it so! As "lofty" seniors, Cherry and her friends each "adopt" a probationer (first-year student) to mentor. Why did her probie have to be dull and sullen Mildred Burnham? Dr. Joe Fortune has discovered a new way to synthesize penicillin - which could make a life or death difference on the battle front. But how did word of it become common knowledge around Spencer? Cherry discovers that Mildred has more to her than she thought as together they face the dangerous thieves who have stolen Dr. Joe's formula.

The second boxed set, Cherry Ames Boxed Set 5-8, contains four early Cherry classics: Flight Nurse, Veterans' Nurse, Private Duty Nurse, and Visiting Nurse.Cherry Ames, Flight NurseIn Flight Nurse, the United States is still fighting World War II. Cherry Ames is still an Army Nurse, this time aloft--as a flight nurse. Cherry is reunited with her corpsman Bunce--the two of them are in sole charge of ferrying severely wounded men out of the battlefield and to the nearest Army hospital. Much to Pilot Wade Cooper's chagrin, he has been taken off bomber duty to fly the wounded to safety--until Cherry makes him see otherwise. Off duty, the nurses "adopt" 6-year-old Muriel Grainger, who has known nothing but war in her short life, and whose mother has been killed by the Germans. Her father is often out on mysterious errands that cause some to label him a "spy." Cherry makes it her risky business to find out if this is truth or rumor.Cherry Ames, Veterans' NurseIn Veterans' Nurse, the war is over, and Cherry is sent home. Her new assignment is working in a veteran's hospital, where she finds her biggest challenge in raising the spirits of men who have lost arms, legs, or other body parts. Will they be welcomed back to their families and able to work again? Jim Travers, the woodworker who has lost a leg and was the sole support of his elderly mother, isn't convinced. But he finds he is of critical assistance to Cherry as she tracks the mysterious thief who has robbed the Veteran's Centeer of a medicine that can help a small boy recover from a deadly disease.Cherry Ames, Private Duty NurseIn Private Duty Nurse, Cherry has finally been discharged from the Army and is back to civilian life. What should she do next after her intense years of Army nursing? Dr. Joe finds her a job as the private nurse of a celebrated musician suffering from a dangerous heart condition. How can Cherry help him avoid the deadly stress his devoted sister unintentially causes when she visits fortuneteller after fortuneteller? Will their family secret be revealed?Cherry Ames, Visiting NurseIn Visiting Nurse, Cherry reunites with her old Spencer classmates Gwen, Bertha, Josie, Vivian, and Mai Lee, when they all decide to take an apartment together in New York City, and work for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Greenwish Village is a far cry from Hilton, Illinois, and farm-raised Bertha is ready to mutiny when she tries to cook in their tiny kitchen. Assigned to a specific neighborhood, Cherry marvels at the many countries her patients come from--and is determined to resolve the loneliness of a few of them by having them all meet at an "Around the World" Dinner at the local settlement house. But who is the mysterious woman who lives in the Victorian mansion at the center of her district? Why hasn't she been seen by anyone in the past 18 years? Click here to read about Cherry Ames in The New York Times!

The first boxed set, Cherry Ames Boxed Set 1-4, introduces our beloved heroine in her four earliest adventures: Student Nurse, Senior Nurse, Army Nurse, and Chief Nurse! With a heart of pure gold and a true yearning to make a difference in the world, eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames leaves her hometown and enters nursing school, embarking on a lifetime of adventures. Follow Cherry through the introductory four-book set as she grows from student nurse to chief nurse, all the while making friends, pushing the limits of authority, leading her nursing colleagues, and sleuthing and solving mysteries. Smart, courageous, mischievous, quick-witted, and above all, devoted to nursing, Cherry Ames meets adventure head-on whereever she goes. Cherry Ames, Student Nurse In Student Nurse, Cherry starts nursing school at Spencer with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation - would she have what it takes to be a nurse? She leaves her quiet town of Hilton, Illinois for the bustle of hospital life, to meet challenges she wouldn't have imagined. The U.S. is at war. Many nurses have gone to the front, and there is a shortage of RNs at Spencer-which Cherry and her classmates help to fill, as they learn the skills they need to graduate. And who is the mysterious patient in the secret room that no one seems to know anything about? Should Cherry risk expulsion to save his life? Cherry Ames, Senior Nurse In Senior Nurse, Cherry realizes that "a senior really must be a little more sober and responsible" - perhaps she should have warned the head nurse right away about the rabbit that had been smuggled into the pediatric ward. But the children had enjoyed it so! As "lofty" seniors, Cherry and her friends each "adopt" a probationer (first-year student) to mentor. Why did her probie have to be dull and sullen Mildred Burnham? Dr. Joe Fortune has discovered a new way to synthesize penicillin - which could make a life or death difference on the battle front. But how did word of it become common knowledge around Spencer? Cherry discovers that Mildred has more to her than she thought as together they face the dangerous thieves who have stolen Dr. Joe's formula. Cherry Ames, Army Nurse In Army Nurse, Cherry has made the difficult decision facing all her classmates - should she enlist in the military or practice nursing on the homefront? She's graduated from Spencer and earned the right to put "RN" after her name, and as an Army nurse, she is now "Lieutenant Ames." The Army nurses are also soldiers, and endure a grueling basic training under the harsh Sergeant Deake (whom Cherry nicknames "Lovey," much to his chagrin). No one knows where the Spencer unit will be deployed until they are shipped off without warning - to Panama City. Who is the mysterious old Indian whom Cherry and her corpsman Bunce find collapsed in an abandoned house? He is obviously very ill, but with what? Can Dr. Joe's newly developed serum help? Cherry Ames, Chief Nurse In Chief Nurse, Cherry is whisked off to a new assignment on an island in the Pacific close to the battlefront -as Acting Chief Nurse! Colonel Pillsbee thinks she is too "young and pretty" to successfully supervise sixty nurses and 200 corpsmen. Can she do it? For the first time Cherry and the nurses of the Spencer unit have to work under fire, in a makeshift tent hospital uncomfortably close to the fighting. When the casualties pour in, the nurses and doctors work night and day, constantly under danger of attack by the Japanese. When the other Lieutenant Ames, Cherry's twin brother Charlie, is unexpectedly stationed nearby, Charlie and Cherry piece together the mystery behind the silence of an injured pilot - which involves a secret enemy weapon. Click here to read about Cherry Ames in The New York Times!"