If you like reading about
a girl detective, you might this summer go to your library and check out Nancy Drews.
And if you're a really, really fast reader, you could read all 57.
–Laura Bush
Former Librarian

Introduction

This site is designed to provide some context for our discussion of The Secret of the Old Clock, the first of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. An instant success in 1930, Nancy Drew books are still being written and enjoyed today.

It would be difficult to find an American woman or girl who has not read Nancy Drew Stories. Most enjoyed the books as young readers, read many or all of them and shared them with friends. These quintessential Nancy characteristics are recalled over and over:

• She was independent and courageous
• She was smart and competent
• She was respected by adults, liked by her peers
• She had no mother but an adoring father
• She had her own car — the coveted blue roadster

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys began as part of the vivid parade of series fiction that fed young imaginations in the early Twentieth Century. Series characters had an array of special interests and settings. There were school and family books, sports books, western books, travel books, sci-fi books, flying books and the most enduring — mysteries.

This week's questions are listed here under Discussion. They are also posted on Blackboard. Please use Blackboard to post your thoughts.

Thanks for visiting.

Patricia Carroll