Nancy Drew, Super Sleuth

I absolutely love Nancy Drew. I received my first Nancy Drew book as a gift when I was 8 years old - Nancy's Mysterious Letter. I read it in the back of our station wagon in 1979 as we drove across country, listening to Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, and John Denver. Ah - those were the days! We were in the process of moving to Spokane, Washington.

When I was little, I always wanted to be Snow White - she had jet-black hair that I thought was so stunning, and porcelain skin. Well, I had the pale skin, but not the hair. I was so excited once I realized that Nancy Drew had titian hair (I finally figured out it meant "strawberry blonde.") I had found my new hero now that we had the same color of hair.

I love Nancy because she's decisive, independent, and not afraid to confront the tough stuff in life. And, she always has the perfect frock for an Emerson College dance in case Ned is in town. :) I like a woman who's well-prepared. She and her loyal friends, Bess and George, can solve basically any murder, with just the contents of their suitcases (they travel a lot). They always seem to have the right tools to do their sleuthing - even though they didn't carry big purses. I've always been amazed by that.

I now collect the original Nancy Drew books. I've learned a lot about them, and love to poke around in antique shops to find volumes to add to my collection. I'm working on collecting the entire series. I'm currently searching for #5 (The Secret of Shadow Ranch), #13 (The Mystery of the Ivory Charm) and #23 (The Mystery of the Tolling Bell). If anyone spots one of them, pick it up and I'll reimburse you! I'm looking for the yellow book club editions published in the 1950's and 1960's. The books have a matte finish, not the shiny finish that the current publications have.

Gary bought me an awesome Nancy Drew trivia book for Christmas - it's very cool. It was definitely one of my favorite gifts. Did you know that Carolyn Keene, the author of the Nancy Drew books, was actually many people working as ghost writers? My sister-in-law even gave me some fun Nancy Drew fold-n-seal stationery a couple of years ago - it is so fun! She and I have a shared love of a hot cup of tea, a warm blanket, fuzzy socks and a great book - especially our latest find of a Nancy Drew mystery.