The 4th collection of the complete reprinting of "Little Orphan Annie", a longtime favorite strip. Against the counsel of his closest friends, Oliver Warbucks marries an aging showgirl in hopes of providing a mother for Annie. But Trixie has other ideas, and schemes to separate Oliver from his friends, Sandy and Annie, sending Annie to a reformatory instead of the fine school Oliver believes she has selected, as Trixie and Oliver embark on a cruise around the world. Annie escapes and she and Annie take up with the Futiles in a small town, leading to some of her most satisfying adventures. ( )

Not bad. Starts off with Annie and Daddy in the city - Annie meets Wun Wey and re-meets Flophouse Bill and Doc Lens. Warbucks gets the (idiot) notion that what Annie really needs is a mother, and falls into the clutches of a showgirl wanting easy money. Various adventures with her, ending with Warbucks and Trixie sailing off in a windjammer and Annie on her way to a school picked by Trixie - actually a reformatory. She escapes that and goes cross-country for a while, then ends up in Cosmic City with the Futiles. That story is very familiar to me - that was the first Annie book I had, just the Cosmic City adventure (and now I can get rid of that). Pinchpenny the wicked miser - I almost ended up feeling sorry for him. But not quite. Agate the newspaperman, Shopp the shopkeeper, Forge the blacksmith, Tom Take the kleptomaniac, Pincher the (goodhearted) sheriff. The iron dog as tool of justice is excellent. It's amusing when Mr. Futile actually stands up to Pinchpenny for a moment - he generally pretty much lives up to his name. It ends with everybody in Cosmic City (who deserves it) better off, and the worse-than-the-villain city banker turns out to have a heart after all. Actually, he's rather Warbucks-y. And Annie's off on the tramp again. Nothing wonderful (and a heavy load of 'appropriate' names), but generally fun and very Annie. ( )