Via Best Shots’ own Amanda McDonald, who has the scoop on an iconic figure in children’s literature.
Most of us have a favorite genre, be it comics, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, or a combination thereof. As a child of two educators, I was an avid reader from the start and it didn’t take me long to find my niche– mysteries. In these young years I preferred formulaic mysteries; I liked when I could figure out ‘who-done-it’ before the protagonist did. This meant a lot of Encyclopedia Brown, Hardy Boys, and the queen of kiddie-mystery– Nancy Drew. I always preferred Nancy: she was beautiful, popular, privileged, and smart as a whip.
Nancy celebrated her 80th birthday this week, with her first three books (The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery) released April 28, 1930. I just had the most fantastical daydream of taking a magnifying glass shaped birthday cake to the super sleuth’s home and celebrating her 80 years as she regaled me with tales of her adventures and we laughed at the half wits who tried to pull one over on her. Oh, how I wish I could do just that!
Alas, she is a fictional character– as most of my childhood ‘best friends’ were. Nancy is still going strong today in the elementary school library I run. Of course we have the original titles and they are popular with mystery buffs, but we also have newer Nancy Drew titles that a lot of you that enjoyed her as kids may not know about. Most of us know of the lackluster feature film (and of course there are associated books), but did you know Nancy is also in graphic novel format now? She sure is!
Happy birthday, Nancy– and here’s to many more! Dear readers: what genre ‘hooked’ you into reading as a kid? Are you still faithful to that genre? Do you ever dust off your classics and revisit them? The news of Nancy’s 80 years has inspired me to do so.
