Hi Patricia. I am pleased to find you have decided to post the story here

SHARPHAWLAD (Sharp)

so I can't compare the style. It could however, have benefited from a decent proof reader or editor, some very elementary errors were distracting.

Angharad

Famous Five with a twist. Absolutely enthralling.

More please - soon? Please?

Susie

reading the series when it first came out on Daphne's Secret Garden site. I was enthralled with the stories and enjoyed them all. There are six in the series, until Andrea, the author died, and Daphne (the illustrator) couldn't continue the series. I believe that there were a few more stories in the offering, but they were 'lost' when Andrea died.
There is a link to the other 5 stories when you 'Click' read the first story.

Mel.

If the humiliating language and pictures were less so, and the terms used to refer to Toni were more similar to most all of the BCTS fiction, I would have enjoyed the story much more. Although I don't know that I've ever read TV fiction from the 50's or 60's, my guess is that some would resemble this story.

After reading so much positive fiction about teens and preteens on BCTS, I wasn't used to the narrator calling Toni "girl/boy", "crossdressed boy", etc. In stories here, these terms are usually used by non-understanding or mean, nasty, etc. characters. I'm sure in many of the instances of such usage, he just could have been called "Toni" or "Tony".

Although the story describes his hair, after setting as (more or less) a pretty little girl's bob, and after the hair salon visit as dripping with curls, the artist always chose to show him with a quite short, obviously male, hair cut. The artist also made him shorter relative to Shirley or Anthea, than he was described in the story.

I'm really sorry about being negative. It's always good to have another author here and if all authors wrote very similar stories, the site would become much more bland. If preteen crossdressing is to be portrayed as a humiliation and be accompanied by pictures of "A Boy in a Dress", I suppose I shouldn't complain. I guess it's just not my thing. There is, however, a TG theme, used to describe stories posted here, of "femdom/humiliation". Shirley's actions really don't amount to femdom. I suppose a theme of just "humiliation" could be used, just to warn readers.

Oh, a minor point; much of the descriptive language seems English, especially calling area around a house a garden, etc. rather than American terms like a yard (which might have various flower or vegetable gardens within it). If the setting is England it would be more appropriate to call a game 'football' rather than 'soccer'. English or British or World, etc. Football could be added in quotes if the author thinks the game would be confused by readers with US or Canadian Football.

Cheers, (never mind me)
Renee

Hi all,

I've posted the story just as it was written. Yes indeed, the story takes place in England but was written for an American audience. On my site, the page is dedicated to Andrea.

When I originally downloaded them for my personal reading, I did "correct" the grammar and the spelling and even the terminology. American vs. British, you know. However when Andrea passed, I obtained permission to archive them on my site because Daphne was having bandwidth problems on her site. I recovered the stories from Daphne's site as they were originally written with the intent of preserving what Andrea had written. They are classic and originals and in a class by themselves.

So no apologies for the spelling and grammar or even the illustrations. They are what they are.

Hugs
Patricia
(Patricia_Allen@yahoo.com)
http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_Marie/index.html

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper ubi femininus sub ubi

This was a sweet, lovely story and I picked up on the fact it was set in England; so I was puzzled by the use of some American words and spellings, altho they did not distract any from the story itself. I also noticed that any time a mention was made about the different hair styles Toni received, illustrations of her in her dresses; her hair still remained the same "boy short". That is too bad as it would have been nice to see her in those styles. Are all the "Petticoat Detective Squad" stories about Toni and "her" cousin or different children each time? J-Lynn

For the information of you folks across the pond, soccer is regularly referred as "soccer" in the UK.
There are only two types of football commonly played here, as far as I know, and the other is called Rugby... although I believe there are two types of Rugby... and of course there's five aside football (or soccer)... and then there are strange and ancient variants played in specific geographic locations that I've heard rumour of...

The thing is, if one says "football" here, once most certainly does not mean people running around in helmets and with padded shoulders; the term is pretty unambiguously understood; but the term "soccer" is also used.
XX
AD

Wow! What a wonderful read!

A well-written, very credible plot which took me straight back to Enid Blyton's "The Boy Next Door", and the excitement I had reading that as a child.

I don't normally read stories involving children, but this was written with all the innocence of childhood books, with just small intrusions of growing up. Very nicely done.

Thank you

These were all great stories ... I remember reading them years ago, and they are fun to read again. Luckily I am not so sensitized as some other readers. Andrea was a gifted writer and I love her concept of a young petticoated detective who grapples with his feelings of shame and joy throughout his adventures.