Elizabeth Gail Dobbs
Elizabeth Gail Dobbs Johnson Lindsay is the lead character in a series of Christian children's books written by Hilda Stahl.
Plot Summary
Elizabeth Gail Dobbs is the daughter of Frank Dobbs and Marie LaDere Dobbs. After her father abandons her at a young age, her mother becomes quite promiscuous, and has little if any patience towards her daughter. She has been sent away through the foster care system and then subsequently returned to her highly abusive mother. She eventually makes peace with her birth father, after he dies, as she receives a puzzle box in which he had hidden for her many special things, including a document which gives her a part of a ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills.
Usually, during her early life, she is returned to her mother so that she can receive state aid money to help raise her. This explains why she was derisively called "Aid Kid". The final straw comes when her mother locks her in a closet after beating her severely with an extension cord. This forces the courts to put Marie under a restraining order and set the stage for removal of the child.
Gwen Miller, a social worker from Social Services, takes Elizabeth Gail, sometimes called Libby, out of this violently abusive household, and brings her to a farm outside of the Midwestern town (unnamed) in which they lived. This is where the books themselves begin.
And so she becomes the foster daughter of Charles and Vera Johnson. Charles, also called Chuck, is a farmer who also owns a store in the community, and Vera is a housewife. They already have three children of their own when Libby gets to the house: oldest son Benjamin; daughter, Susan; and youngest son, Kevin.
Chuck's heart goes out to Elizabeth when he first sees her with her little suitcase trying to get back into town. He makes it clear that he will protect and love her. And that he does throughout the entire series.
Later on in the books, Libby's social worker marries Luke Johnson, Chuck's widowed brother, and becomes her Aunt Gwen. Although she has been very headstrong, Elizabeth dearly loves Gwen the best out of all her social workers. Prior to Gwen, Elizabeth had had a social worker named Mrs. Blevins, who didn't much like Elizabeth.
At first, Libby doesn't know what to think. She has been through so many foster homes over the years that she isn't sure how long she will last at this one. However, she somehow feels deep inside that she belonged at this one, and the family made certain that she was. She soon realizes that what makes them different is their belief in God, and that they have prayed for her and love her with His love. They gained another foster child, Toby Smart, and after some fits and starts, Libby and Toby become family.
Elizabeth has a dreadful fear of the Johnson's pet goose named Goosy Poosy, but with time, she gets over her fear of and grows to love the actually friendly goose.
However, her ever-conniving mother enlists the help of Libby's new, rather vicious social worker, a Ms. Marla Kremeen, to take Libby from her new home, and back into a life of unhappiness and abuse. Fortunately this fails, thanks to the help of her maternal grandmother, who has a lot of animosity towards Marie and seemingly towards Libby, who writes letters to her frequently anyway after finding her in the same town her adopted grandparents live in. Cowed by Libby's real grandmother, Marie signs the papers, allowing the Johnsons to adopt her daughter.
However, not long after she has been adopted, Marie enlists the help of her equally promiscuous and conniving sister, Phyllis LaDere, to kidnap Elizabeth. When Chuck and the police in Chicago come to her rescue, Marie, Phyllis and their male companions had all disappeared. This spells the end of Marie Dobbs and any other attempts to separate Elizabeth and the Johnsons.
As she becomes more and more part of the family, and becoming part of their home and religious life, she becomes a better person. The values which the Johnsons instill in her become a part of her, and we see her grow spiritually as she accepts Christ as her Saviour. All the while, she makes friends, and also finds some enemies.
At first, the Johnsons' neighbors' daughter, Brenda Wilkens, hates Libby for being an Aid Kid and is jealous of Libby's relationship with Ben. Libby, at first a person who clearly knows how to fight, due to being exposed to abuse most of her life, breaks her nose. As she matures however, she stops lashing out physically. Some time later, she and Brenda become friends as she helps Brenda to accept the Lord. Eventually, Brenda grows up and marries a minister.
Elizabeth also has another rival in rich and snobby Joanne Tripper. Brown-nosing Joanne makes clear her disdain of Elizabeth and her friends and family, though, in particular, Libby, because of her jealousy of her talent at concert piano. Unlike Brenda, Joanne never becomes a part of Libby's group of friends.
Elizabeth dreamed of playing concert piano from the moment she first sees it in the Johnson's living room, and takes lessons first from Vera and later from a former very famous pianist named Rachael Avery. This irritates the arrogant Joanne who thinks that Aid Kids shouldn't take piano lessons. This is mainly because Joanne herself has trouble getting a place with Rachael. Yet Elizabeth proves her wrong, although Joanne is her chief rival through the rest of the book series.
In fact, many of her friends are from the foster care system that she gets out of finally. Chief among these is Jerry Grosbeck, whom she despises at first because of their acrimonious history together, but then is his girlfriend when they are in high school; he then marries Elizabeth's adopted sister, Susan Johnson, making him and Elizabeth in-laws.
Her best friend is a girl named Jill Noteboom, who is an aspiring writer. Jill eventually succeeds in this vocation, and she also eventually marries her best friend's adopted brother, Ben. Jill gives birth to their son, Matthew, near the end of the series.
She is also close to identical twins April and May Brakie, who had been in a foster home where the husband, a man named Morris Stern, has sexually abused both May and Elizabeth. Sadly, no one believes May or Elizabeth, and it takes Chuck to finally get someone to believe the girls. Eventually, Morris and Evelyn Stern moved out of the community, and until a new Christian family takes the twins in, they stay with Elizabeth and her family.
Elizabeth is also close to Adam and his Grandma Feuder who live nearby. Grandma eventually dies, but wills a teddy bear that she loves very much to Elizabeth, who keeps it.
As time goes on, they all grow up. Eventually, April marries Adam Feuder, who is a close friend of Elizabeth's; and May marries Brenda Wilkens' brother, Joe.
While she is at Maddox School of Music, Elizabeth meets Badden Lindsay, a concert pianist who is in demand at the time. During this time, she discovers that her look-alike cousin, Tammy LaDere, is her half-sister (their father, Frank Dobbs, had had an affair with both Marie and her sister, Phyllis). Tammy's mother wants her to marry into money, and when she doesn't, her mother disowns her.
As such, Tammy becomes a Christian and a part of the Johnson family as well. Their similar troubles help bond Elizabeth and Tammy. She later marries Nolen Brown, a ranch hand at the Sandhill Ranch in Nebraska that Frank has left to Libby, and which she then shares with her half-sister. Tammy remains in Nebraska for her wedding and then lives with Nolen there.
Then, during a time when Badden is recouperating at the Johnson farm from a long concert tour, he falls in love with Elizabeth, and soon after, they, too, are married and they become a concert piano team.
The little Aid Kid who started out with absolutely nothing except hate and pain in her life, with the Johnson family and God's help, gets everything she had ever dreamed of, and more.
Family
- Badden Lindsay--Husband
- Frank Dobbs--Biological Father (deceased)
- Marie LaDere-Dobbs--Biological Mother
- Phyllis LaDere--Maternal Aunt
- Tamara "Tammy" LaDere Johnson-Brown--Look Alike Cousin/Half sister
- Grandma LaDere--Maternal Grandmother
- Grandmother and Grandfather Johnson--Adopted Paternal Grandparents
- Charles "Chuck" Johnson--Adopted Father
- Vera Johnson--Adopted Mother
- Benjamin "Ben" Johnson--Adopted Brother
- Susan Johnson-Groesbeck--Adopted Sister
- Kevin Johnson--Adopted Brother
- Toby Smart Johnson--Adopted Brother
- Luke Johnson--Adopted Uncle (Chuck's brother)
- Gwen Miller-Johnson--Adopted Aunt (Elizabeth's former social worker)
- Scotty Johnson--Adopted Cousin
- Jill Noteboom-Johnson--Sister in-law
- Jerry Groesbeck--Brother in-law
- Matthew Johnson--Nephew
The Original Books
Published in 1978, these are the original Elizabeth Gail books. There were also three other editions, published in 1989, 1992 and a re-vamped series in 2001.
1. Elizabeth Gail and the mystery at the Johnson farm
2. Elizabeth Gail and the Secret box
3. Elizabeth Gail and the Teddy Bear mystery
4. Elizabeth Gail and the Dangerous double
5. Elizabeth Gail and the trouble at Sandhill Ranch
6. Elizabeth Gail and the Strange birthday party
7. Elizabeth Gail and the Terrifying news
8. Elizabeth Gail and the frightened runaways
9. Elizabeth Gail and trouble from the past
10. Elizabeth Gail and The Silent piano
11. Elizabeth Gail and double trouble
12. Elizabeth Gail and the holiday mystery
13. Elizabeth Gail and the missing love letters
14. Elizabeth Gail and the Music camp romance
15. Elizabeth Gail and the handsome stranger
16. Elizabeth Gail and the secret love
17. Elizabeth Gail and the summer for weddings
18. Elizabeth Gail and the time for love
19. Elizabeth Gail and the great canoe conspiracy
20. Elizabeth Gail and the mystery of the hidden key
21. Elizabeth Gail and the secret of the gold charm
The New Books
These books published in 2001 have different titles in some cases, with some books eliminated entirely. Other differences are that they have covers with a photo on them instead of an illustration, and that they are in chronological order, unlike the first editions where books 19, 20 and 21 were AbOUT Libby's life about 10 years before book 18.
1. Elizabeth Gail: Mystery at Johnson farm
2. Elizabeth Gail: The secret box
3. Elizabeth Gail: The disappearance (previously: teddy bear mystery)
4. Elizabeth Gail: The dangerous double
5. Elizabeth Gail: Secret of the Gold charm
6. Elizabeth Gail: The fugitive (previously: great canoe conspiracy)
7. Elizabeth Gail: Trouble at sandhill ranch
8. Elizabeth Gail: Mystery of the hidden key
9. Elizabeth Gail: The uninvited guests (previously: strange birthday party)
10. Elizabeth Gail: The unexpected letter (previously: terrifying news)
11. Elizabeth Gail: Hiding out (previously: frightened runaways)
12. Elizabeth Gail: Trouble from the past