Three New Softcover Dana Girls Books


Three softcover Dana Girls books that I received in the mail today.

The backs of the three books.

Recently, I have decided that I would like to complete my collection of the more recent set of "Dana Girls" books. I have now completed a full set of the 1970s white hardcover books. I'll blog about those in another post. I even managed to obtain a good copy of "The Witch's Omen", the last and rarest book, at a good price.

I am also now working on finishing my collection of the 1980s era paperback books that were published in the UK. The artwork on these is modern (well, I guess it is somewhat 1980s! But certainly it's more modern than the previous generations of Dana Girls artwork) and fun - I actually really like the artwork on these. They are slim paperback volumes that were published by Sparrow Books.

I first ran across these books in a used bookstore in Cape Town, South Africa, where I lived for 8 years. I had read the hardcover versions of the Dana Girls books growing up as a kid in the United States, but I had never seen the paperback versions before. I kept an eye out for these books in used bookstores in South Africa and over the years I managed to find about 2/3 of the set. I'm now keeping an eye out in Australia, where I am managing to find more of the books. They must have been distributed here and in South Africa, but I don't think they were distributed in the United States.

The pictures above show three of the 1980s softcover books that arrived in the mail today. I bought a set of three books. I actually already had copies of two of the books, but I needed #9, "Mystery of the Bamboo Bird". However, I don't mind getting the extras, especially since the price was good. I like to take these slim books in my purse to read on the train or on an airplane when I'm travelling for work. So, it's nice to have good copies to leave on the shelf in my collection and some extra copies that I can read and not worry (too much) about adding wear and tear.

Here's a close-up of the book I needed for my collection:

Close up of  "Mystery of the Bamboo Bird" cover.

Does anyone else collect the softcover 1980s Dana Girls books? What do you think of the cover artwork? 

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