Don Sturdy Books In Order

Publication Order of Don Sturdy Books

The Don Sturdy series is a series of children’s books written under the house pseudonym of Victor Appleton, which is comprised of a group of prominent novelists. This children’s book series is comprised of a total of 15 books which were released between the years 1925 and 1935. Each and every book in the series features the central character in the form of Don Sturdy. Among the series’ books, one book titled Don Sturdy in the Land of the Giants, was written by author Howard Roger Garis and all the others were written by author John Duffield. All the 15 books were released by the house name of Victor Appleton, which was used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate publication for getting their novels written by different noteworthy authors, but under one common name. This series is included as the second one by the Stratemeyer Syndicate that was re-printed outside America, after being originally published there. Among the all the 15 titles of the series, only a couple were printed in the United Kingdom. One of the books titled The Big Snake Hunters is known to exist in 2 forms in the United Kingdom, one of them is from the year 1933 and the other one having a different art on the cover page is from the year 1953.

As the series opens, Don Sturdy is shown as residing in Hillville, New York. His only family members include a paternal uncle named Captain Frank Sturdy and a maternal uncle named Professor Regorr Bruce. Frank Sturdy is known to be a great adventurer and game hunter, whose footsteps Don Sturdy follows while growing up. On the other hand, Professor Bruce is depicted as a scientist, who helps Don Sturdy with his difficulties in whatever field it may be. For taking care of his household chores, Don Sturdy has a maid named Mrs. Roscoe, while her husband served as his chauffeur. Don has another maid in his house by the name Jenny Jenks, who is a gum-snapping, wacky, and spaced-out, and who has the habit of listening to his talks through the keyholes. Initially, the role of Jenny Jenks was depicted in the form of an interesting grotesque, but as the series progresses, her role too gets expanded and she is seen being devoted to the mangled use of her language. From the beginning of the series, Don Sturdy is depicted as an orphan. Actually, he had a family, including his father, mother, and sister, but they went missing while sailing somewhere around the Cape Horn.

The time when Don lost his family was a very difficult one for him as he was going through a lot of pain. Therefore, his uncles used to take him to Algeria along with them in order to ease out his pain. It was also his first adventurous journey in which he comes across the red-handed sidekick named Teddy Allison. From then on, Teddy continued to stay with Don throughout the rest of the novel series and Don used to call him with the nickname Brick. During the journey to Algeria, Don and Teddy Allison go on to rescue his pop, who later informs them that Don Sturdy’s family might have survived from the shipwreck indeed and may have drifted to somewhere in Brazil. The place that he tells them about in Brazil is nearly at a distance of some 1000 miles from Cape Horn. As a result, the series continues with Don Sturdy’s next adventurous journey to Brazil along with his uncles, where he is seen hunting snakes. Surprisingly, Don comes across his sister over there. Don learns from a few sources in Brazil that his father was hit on his head and lost his mental ability to think properly. One night, he wandered off to Egypt and his mother also followed him, leaving his sister alone to fetch for her living on her own. This information leads Don Sturdy, Teddy Allison, and Don’s uncles to their next journey in the Pharaohs’ lands. They receive a belated telegram from Don’ mother over there, but they cannot locate her anywhere. In spite of searching for days, they are not able to find her, but their hopes do not die so soon. They keep on hunting through the ancient land until they finally come across Mrs. Sturdy in an old tomb. After this, the series continues to show other adventures of Don Sturdy and his uncles in which they search lost specimens and cities.

One of the initial books published in the Don Sturdy series is titled as ‘Adrift in the Great Jungle’. The book was released by the Kessinger publication in the year 1927. In some of the other prints of the novel, it is also known by the title Don Sturdy Amnong the Gorillas. At the start of this book, author Duffield has introduced Don Sturdy as the nephew of one of the popular hunters in the big game named Captain Frank Sturdy. Throughout the course of the novel, Don Sturdy travels to each and every corner of the Earth in order to search for his adventure. As the book progresses, he faces different challenges, which are depicted in the book under separate titles. Some of them described by author Duffield are as follows, A Terrifying Crash, A Surly Antagonist, The Nocturnal Prowler, Mixing It Up, The Pythin Rears, The Crawling Death, Over the Cataract, The Strom’s Grip, A Wild Chase, A Nightmare Experience, Of For Africa, A Breathless Moment, In the Torrent, Lost in the Wilds, Into the Pit, The Heart of Jungle, In the Toils, and finally Capturing the Gorillas.

Another popular book written in the series by author Duffied is titled as ‘The old Egyptian’s Great Secret’. It was released in the year 1925 by the Grosser and Dunlap publishers. The book is also known by the name ‘Don Sturdy in the Tombs of Gold’. In this book, author Duffield has given one more fascinating tale of adventures and explorations of Don Sturdy. At the start of the book, Don Sturdy is shown as going in the Kings’ Valley in Egypt in search of his next adventures. Just like all his other adventures, Don Sturdy faces challenges with different levels of difficulties during the course of the journey. However, he becomes successful in coming out alive from each of the difficult situation and continues to go on the course of his adventurous journey. For remaining firm in the middle of the hardships and overcoming the challenges in his journey, Don Sturdy shows a great deal of qualities that prove to be of great help to him. These qualities include bravery, strength, fearlessness, fierceness, etc. In the end, Don Sturdy successfully completes his adventure and adds yet another achievement to his name.