Daddy-Long-Legs

Jerusha Judy Abbott's life is drastically changed one day, when a mysterious and rich benefactor scoops her up from an orphanage-the only home she has ever known and offers to pay her way through college. Her benefactor has many requests, the two most important being that she uses this opportunity to become a writer, and that she writes him monthly to update him on her studies. To maintain his air of mystery, he never responds, and requests that Judy only refer to him as Mr. John Smith. Unhappy about this indifferent title, Judy decides to refer to him as Daddy-Long-Legs due to her only knowing that he is quite tall. Chronicling her four years of college, many friendships, embarrassing stories, and quite-funny musings, Judy finds more than an education in her correspondence with Daddy-Long-Legs.

Jerusha "Judy" Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. At the age of 17, Judy is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. Judy catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. She has an obligation to write him a monthly letter, but she will never know his identity, she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he never will reply. The letters chronicles Judy's educational, personal, and social growth as she attends a "girl's college" on the East Coast.

The sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs finds Judy Abbott's best friend Sallie McBride taking total control over the John Grier Home, the orphanage where Judy grew up. Chronicling her hilarious yet heart-felt day-to-day interactions with the permanent residents of the John Grier Home, Sallie spills her heart out in letter after letter to multiple recipients, including the doctor of the JGH-one Robin MacRae, whom she has deemed her enemy and refers to him as such in her letters. Sallie, while often out of her element, comes to love the children and works diligently to ensure that they are safe, well-behaved, and offered the best opportunities possible. Despite unavoidable misfortune, she perseveres and even finds love.

Dear Enemy is the sequel to novel Daddy-Long-Legs and follows the story of Sallie McBride, Judy Abbott's classmate and best friend in Daddy-Long-Legs. Dear Enemy shows how Sallie McBride grows from a frivolous socialite to a mature woman and an able executive. It also follows the development of Sallie's relationships with Gordon Hallock, a wealthy politician, and Dr. Robin MacRae, the orphanage's physician, (to whom Sallie addresses her letters: "Dear Enemy"). Both relationships are affected by Sallie's initial reluctance to commit herself to her job, and by her gradual realization of how happy the work makes her and how incomplete she'd feel without it.