Reading at Dawn - Book Review Blog

 I couldn't help myself. That and I haven't finished reading the book that I had originally planned for this day. Took me till a couple days ago to remember I used to read Nancy Drew and that it'd work for this blog post.

Book 14 in A to Z Challenge

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene

About the Series: The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories was the long-running "main" Nancy Drew series, published between 1930 and 2003. Initially, titles were published by Grosset & Dunlap, but with #57 (1979) publication switched to Simon & Schuster. Some people consider these first 56 to be the original series and consider the Simon & Schuster series to be an entirely different series. The first 56 are considered to be the "classic" Nancy Drew books. In 2003, the series was discontinued, and a new, more contemporary series (Nancy Drew Girl Detective) was created in its place.

It also included a section of stories set in college, with Nancy moving on yet still finding herself in the detective situations.



I have never been very big on either mystery or horror (I used to read RL Stine when I was a pre-teen), but I remember the days when I was younger and I loved Nancy Drew (and the occasional Hardy Boys as well). I still have some of the Nancy Drew books too, in storage somewhere. I have the yellow hard covered copies. I remember reading ones like The Old Clock and the Hidden Staircase. I remember the college books, but I also think I might have missed some of the series at one point or another. It was many years ago.

Characters: Nancy, of course, was awesome. She had spunk, tended to get in trouble on a regular basis, and even though she was just "a girl" there was so much she was capable of, including solving weird and sometimes creepy mysteries. Her father was an important character, which is good because now some end up with missing parents to add tension, but he didn't hinder her actions. It was a good relation, that I remember at least. And of course there was Ned, the boyfriend. I don't remember paying a lot of attention to Ned but I knew I liked that his character wasn't around. It wasn't a big focus, there was no worry about whether she liked him or some other guy (though college might have changed that as I didn't get very far on those) and no paranormal bad buy complex. Ned was a nice guy and helped when he could. But the focus was Nancy.

The college stories were a bit different. They weren't bad but it just wasn't quite the classic that the beginning of the Nancy Drew world created. 


I didn't care much for the movie attempts though. They aren't bad, which was the risk because often times movies get pretty bad in comparison. However, the movies still can't compare to the book. I might some day go back and read the whole series over again. That would be interesting to see how they are years later.

I recommend the books to youth and adults alike, in particular the first section of the series, but I particularly remember them from my pre-teen years and the awesomeness that is was back then. Read. Enjoy.


Reviewed by:
Dawn Embers