Ask any little girl (or big girl for that matter!) what literary heroine had titian hair and drove a blue roadster, and we’ll all answer immediately — Nancy Drew.
I can still remember the first time I drove full speed into the town of River Heights, USA. I was in the fifth grade, and standing on a chair in my school library, and I chose which Nancy Drew book to begin with based on two things: The title and the cover image.
The school library had a little less than half of Nancy’s original 56 titles, but the beauty of this series is that you can pick up any book, at any time. Reading them out of order, you won’t miss anything in terms of continuity. Each book stands alone on its own two feet. Only the main character relationships and a few random references to past mysteries carry over from book to book.
At the time, I was no stranger to mysteries. I’d been vicariously sleuthing with Scooby and the gang since I was a wee lass. My mom had the entire Nancy Drew series when she was young (sadly lost in a flooded basement when she was a teen), and she encouraged me to start reading them. And like any really good thing, once you start, you just can’t stop. But seriously, who would want to? Continue reading