Childhood Book Memories

For some reason, I've been thinking of these books a lot lately. But I couldn't remember the name of the main character or the author. All I could remember was that it was a girl who had to go live with rich relatives and there was a Native American friend, or something. So I had to call my mom to help out. Of course, she remembered, the girl's name was Mandie!

Lois Gladys Leppard's Mandie series was a favorite of mine and Nat's when we were little. My mom bought us the first one, Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, at the grocery store one week, and every week after she would have to buy a new one to keep us quiet. Apparently, they were Christian fiction, which I don't remember as being central to the plot at all. I refreshed my memory of these books by going to Amazon (once I remembered the protagonist's name!) and looking them up. They were great adventure stories of the pioneer days. Mandie had an old Native American man named Uncle Ned watching over her, after her father died. I kind of want to see if my library has these, so I can read them over. They probably won't stand up to re-reading, so I might be in for a disappointment, but it would be nice to relive some of the wonder of my childhood reading experiences.

Edited to Add: How sad! Lois Gladys Leppard passed away in October. However, it appears that she left behind at least 40 Mandie books. I know I've only read about ten of them. Maybe I really SHOULD check for them at the library. Also, they are published by Christian publishing company Bethany House, one of Bookfool's favorite publishers.