The Bobbsey Twins’ Search in the Great City

The Bobbsey Twins’ Search in the Great City was published in 1917 and takes the Lakeport family to New York for an extended visit. The city of the period is rendered with the same patient educational interest that the series brings to all of its settings: Central Park, the elevated train system, a tour of a newspaper office, a visit to the Statue of Liberty, lunch in a fashionable hotel restaurant. The book functions as a guided tour for young readers who would not visit New York in person.

The central plotline involves a missing locket belonging to a kind older woman the twins meet on the train ride into the city. Nan and Bert spend most of the book looking for clues to its disappearance, with Flossie and Freddie repeatedly getting lost in the unfamiliar urban environment. The eventual recovery of the locket comes through an accidental encounter rather than detective work. The book is gentle even by Bobbsey standards. A reasonable mid-period entry.