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Mandie #30

Mandie and the Long Goodbye

lois gladys leppard

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Mandie and Joe uncover mystery after mystery, beginning with a turkey stolen right out of the oven, before Joe has to head back to college after the Christmas holidays

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1,1998
Series
Mandie

This edition

Format
156 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
December 1, 1998 by Bethany House
ISBN
9781556615573
ASIN
1556615574
Language
English

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About the author

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lois gladys leppard

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Lois Gladys Leppard was the author of the Mandie series of children's novels. Leppard wrote her first Mandie story when she was only eleven and a half years old, but did not become a professional author until she was an adult. Leppard has also worked as a professional singer, actress, and playwright. At one time, she and her two sisters, Sybil and Louise, formed a singing group called the Larke Sisters.
There are forty Mandie books in the main series, an eight-book junior series and several other titles. Leppard said that she could write a Mandie book in two weeks, barring any interruptions.
The eponymous heroine lives in North Carolina in the early 1900s, encountering adventure and solving mysteries with help from her friends, family, and pet cat, Snowball. These young reader novels are meant to teach morals as well as be fun and captivating stories to read. Leppard stated that her books contain "nothing occult or vulgar", and Mandie is depicted as a faithful Christian. The Mandie books often deal with issues of discrimination and prejudice relating to race (particularly with regard to the local Cherokee), class, and disability.
Lois Gladys Leppard based some of the incidents in her Mandie books on her mother's experiences growing up in North Carolina. The dedication in the first book is: "For My Mother, Bessie A. Wilson Leppard, and In Memory of Her Sister, Lillie Margaret Ann Wilson Frady, Orphans of North Carolina Who Outgrew the Sufferings of Childhood".

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.5 / 5.0, 10 votes)
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2(20%)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
stefeman
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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The Mandie books are fun Christian mysteries for children, but I still love reading them. Even though she doesn't age very quickly and seems to get far too many breaks from school during the year, she's a lot of fun.
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Mineaanagram
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I mostly enjoyed this book. It had good amounts of action/suspense as well as romance and friendship. One of the biggest downsides for me, though was that the action did not really start until chapter 8. By that point, the book is half over. The beginning of the book is quite boring. Much like #27, there is monotonous searching for something that is clearly gone. I found the beginning to be a waste of time. Other than that, the book was good.
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DaKua
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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My feelings on book #30 are very similar to book #29. I love the Mandie books (with all my heart!), but the plot doesn't seem to be based on much -- just a variety of "curious" things that take place around the end of the holidays. Still, I have high hopes for the next books in the series.

Mandie Shaw is a good Christian girl, who relies on God for her strength. She's a good role model for young girls -- except, for maybe when she jumps headfirst into unknown dangers.

Starting with book #30, it looks like plans are changing for Mandie her friends. College is on the horizon already! :)
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Rem4lifexD
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This book begins with a rather funny start when the turkey from the oven goes missing!
Then Mandie and her friends go a mission to figure out just where the turkey could have been taken as well as some other items that get lost along the way. I think that the final result of the way the mystery is resolved is very hilarious considering the somewhat depressing title of the book.
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k1m3l
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Always including the disclaimer at the top that these books have outdated, offensive, gross depictions of people of color.

Unfortunately, this book was a repeat of recent books for the most part. I was excited at the beginning to see the author's note that she would be picking up the pace on Mandie's story, just to be disappointed that the first several chapters were repeating the process of searching the Shaw house that we saw in book 27.

How was Mandie able to discover a whole ancient journal despite searching more carefully in book 27? Papers are harder to find than turkeys. I also did not particularly enjoy the conclusion of some of these mysteries. The scarf being on the ground the hallway, the quilt being treated like a mystery and then set adise for another book, the failure to explain how a whole man knew there was a turkey cooking and stealing it undetected, the journal turning out to be basically nothing, Mandie appearing interested in what happened to the turkey for no real reason, the baddies turning to Jesus with minimal prompting, yet another convenient connection to the Shaw's.

Now for a few things I did like in this book. We got the clues and mysterious happenings sprinkled in at a better pace this time. There was danger, adventure, and a scuffle at the end that made it feel like real stakes were at play. I thought there was a chance Dr. Woodard was in terrible danger. I also enjoyed Mandie's interactions with her friends this time. She was much less bratty, she was trying to entertain everyone without forcing her ideas on them, and everyone seemed to get along quite well.

In all honesty, I think this book would have served better if Joe going away was treated as the main plot and there were no mysteries. Just for one book to push along a big change to the relationships in Mandie's life.

No looking forward to, I assume, another miscommunication plot in the next book.
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