Margaret Biggs, etc.

I've been reading old children's books again - The Blakes Come to Melling and The New Prefect at Melling, both by Margaret Biggs. I really, really liked Blakes - it was a really clever school story, and Helen Blake reminded me of Tim from Antonia Forest's Marlow series (I could see Tim laughing, too, if she were sent to Coventry). I'm having a harder time with New Prefect - it looks as though Biggs wants Helen to Learn an Important Lesson. I dislike books like that, which is why I've only read Austen's Emma once.
I turned to old children's books after reading too much adult fluff - Dolores, by Jacqueline Susann, and The right address, by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman. Both had a weird meta-fiction context - Dolores discussed Jackie Kennedy, but was a thinly-disguised story about her life. And The right address discussed plagiarism, but had a very similar plot to People like us by Dominick Dunne. It wasn't plagiarism, and I liked The right address more than People like us, but they were similar.
Oh, and a guy from my high school class is doing well and publishing quite a bit in his chosen field of creative writing. I must adopt a new mantra: I love my job and my life; I don't need a PhD to be fulfilled.