I have to admit, I didn’t do a whole lot of reading in the Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge during the past month. But I did take some time to re-visit one of my dear childhood friends: Nancy Drew.
I headed to the basement, to the row of yellow-spined Nancy Drew mysteries collected during my childhood, and pulled out book #1: The Secret of the Old Clock.
Memories
It’s been many years — like, more than 20 years — since I pulled out a Nancy Drew mystery. But the first thing that struck me was the memories. The endpapers of these books are so familiar to me, probably because I spent a good portion of many summer days studying them, memorizing them. My editions (copyright 1959 but most likely printed in the 60s) dedicate the end-papers to black and white sketched vignettes representing the early books in the series.
I know without having to look which one represents The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Book 4, one of my favorites), and most of the others stir something in my mind as well, bringing back vague memories of scenes, conflicts, and clues from the books that were once my regular companions.
And right there, inside the front cover, is proof positive that this copy of The Secret of the Old Clock has been mine for a long, long time.
As you can see, good handwriting has never been one of my strengths. But clearly, this book was important enough to me to track down a sticker and use it to label this Nancy Drew mystery as mine.
“Luck was with me this time.”
As I read through The Secret of the Old Clock, I couldn’t help but smile. The approach to plotting a mystery novel — yes, even a children’s mystery book — has certainly changed.
These days, authors insert more confusion, more roadblocks, more red herrings to stump their detectives. As for Nancy Drew…well, every chapter had her easily finding another clue and she quickly connected the dots to solve the mystery. Even her attempt to go for a walk to forget about the puzzle for a while resulted in her overhearing an important conversation.
And when she conveniently found the keys to a van under the floor mat where she “thought” some people “might” put their keys, she admitted, “Luck was with me this time.” Oh, Nancy — I’d say luck was with you throughout the book!
Nancy, herself
Reading this first book of the series reminded me that I loved Nancy Drew. More than that, I wanted to be Nancy Drew. And it’s not hard to see why. Nancy is spunky, determined, smart, tough…and she saves the day. Ten-year-old me aspired to be just such a girl.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I thoroughly enjoyed my trip down memory lane to re-visit a childhood “friend,” and I look forward to reading several more Nancy Drew mysteries in the coming months.
Be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Books to see what others have been reading in the Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge this month.
I loved Nancy Drew as well. My mom has the entire collection and read them to my sister and I after our Bible story. Such fantastic childhood memories!
=D I LOVED this post – and seeing your handwriting inside of your book! Unfortunately, I wrote my whole name out in my books, otherwise I’d post a copy of MY handwriting, despite what it was. =D haha! Still, it’s fun to look at things like that and remember.
You did a great job remembering and reliving. Thanks for sharing!
Over the summer, I had been digging around in the attic for some of my old favorites for the boys..and I unearthed a box of Hardy Boys books. Your recent posts inspired me to finally get them out and read them..and I just have to laugh. I love how all of the bad guys just “look bad.” They have the same sort of luck as our girl Nancy. I can also name most of the titles, just by looking at that end paper. I guess I’m going back to the attic to dig out my Nancy Drews, too!
Oh I loved these books too. We won’t bring up the sad demise of my copies, because honestly, I’m such a pitcher, I don’t know if I’d still have them anyways. But you’re so right about them . . . you always knew what was coming, in a way. But a good way. How long did it take you to reread this – about 45 min? And yes, the Lilac Inn and Old Clock ones were two of my favs too!
I recently had my mom look through my old books and find my copies of the series and bring them down to me. I loved them!
“The Mystery at Lilac Inn” is one of my favorites too! I always wanted to be Nancy Drew–not only because her father seemed so kind, but also because she seemed so smart and always knew the right thing to say to get herself out of trouble. Now, the closest I get to being Nancy is by playing the video games. Thanks for sharing and letting me revisit my childhood!
I read the same book last month. I read them as a kid and was a little a disappointed this time through – not that I’d let that keep me from reading another one!
Well, you know that I do not share your love of Nancy, but I also thoroughly enjoyed my revisiting Trixie Belden this month!
.-= Jennifer, Snapshot´s last post ..Hello Trixie Belden, Old Friend! =-.
Was that the 1950′s version or the 1931 version? My post is up. I did a Nancy Drew (the Secret of Shadow Ranch 1931).
I’ve enjoyed revisiting Nancy myself! Your post echoes many of my same memories!
I loved Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden! (I even secretly read the Hardy Boys, embarrassed as the librarian checked them out for me.)
I was a Trixie Belden and Hardy Boys gal but I’ve recently started reading through the Nancy Drew series. I did a teaser from the Secret of the Old Clock last week.
I loved Nancy Drew. I think I read them all. And then I learned about Encyclopedia Brown. Wonderful!
When we went to my grandparents house when I was little, I’d always read their books. They had two that I read over and over. One was a Hardy Boys that I can’t remember, and the other was Nancy Drew’s Lilac Inn. LOVED IT!
.-= Karlene´s last post ..Yes, I’m running a 5K =-.
It hasn’t been 20 years since I picked up one! I pick one up every now and then between other ‘adult’ books that I read. I completed my yellow matte collection through ebay seven or eight years ago. I had about 60 percent of them from childhood, and what I didn’t have I read from the library.
I still want to be Nancy Drew when I grow up.
I didn’t read them as a child. I read Trixie Beldon and The Three Investigators mysteries and then moved directly into Agatha Christie books. This year I’m doing the Nancy Drew challenge at http://books-movies-chinesefood.blogspot.com/2009/11/nancy-drew-challenge.html It’s been a lot of fun so far.
.-= Terri´s last post ..Food for Thought =-.