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Nancy's biggest secret
The girl has been solving mysteries for 74 years, but she still looks and acts like a teenager. Girls' favorite sleuth can thank new stories, not the fountain of youth, for her ageless appeal.
By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published July 12, 2004
Without a Trace, 99 cents; A Race Against Time, False Notes and High Risk, $4.99 each. Simon & Schuster.
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Long before Harry Potter ever heard of Hogwarts, before the first unfortunate event afflicted the Baudelaire children, there was Nancy Drew.
So long ago, in fact, that if the intrepid young detective had aged realistically since 1930, when she first appeared in print as a 16-year-old in The Secret of the Old Clock, she would be 90 today.
But in four new books about Nancy, she has aged only three years since her first case and looks great in a miniskirt. How she managed that is just about the only mystery she couldn't solve.
Series, from the Bobbsey Twins to Goosebumps, have long been a mainstay of children's books, and Nancy Drew is one of the champions.
During her long run, Nancy has had several makeovers, and she has jumped into the 21st century in Without a Trace, A Race Against Time, False Notes and High Risk, just published by Simon & Schuster.
Two more books will come out this summer, and the publisher plans to issue six each year. They're aimed at readers ages 8 to 12.
The new books bring Nancy into the present, but the earlier books remain popular, too, maybe because they give readers a glimpse into the past. Nancy is always focused on a mystery, but the books are rich with details about what life was like for teenagers in earlier eras.
For many young readers, too, the Nancy Drew books are something they share with their mothers or grandmothers, who were fans when they were girls.
Reading Without a Trace and an original version of The Secret of the Old Clock together reveals how many things about Nancy have changed - and how some have stayed the same.
The most obvious difference is that for the first time the books are written in first person. Nancy speaks to the reader directly, in her own voice.
Earlier Nancy Drews were written in the third person, although readers knew what was going on inside her head because she was always "asking herself" or "reminding herself" or "assuring herself." Still, especially in the early books, she could come off as a bit of a priss.
The new Nancy is more relaxed and funnier. Here's her description of Deirdre Shannon, a new character she's not too fond of because Deirdre flirts with Nancy's boyfriend: "In addition to her other charming qualities, she has a temper like an overcaffeinated Chihuahua."
The old Nancy was something of a fashion plate. In The Secret of the Old Clock she shops for "frocks" at a department store that offers "Paris originals."
As she tells us in Without a Trace, the new Nancy doesn't care that much about clothes. At one point, when she's in hot pursuit of a suspect, she almost goes to a party in her fuzzy bedroom slippers.
First a blond, then a redhead, Nancy now has strawberry-blond hair. She has traded in her original "shining new blue roadster," more recently a Mustang, for a hybrid car.
Instead of motoring over to a friend's house to chat - many homes didn't have telephone service in 1930 - she uses speed dial on her cell phone to call her steady boyfriend of 74 years, Ned Nickerson, when she wants to meet him at Susie's Read & Feed, their favorite bookstore-cafe.
Nancy's two best friends also have been updated. (They don't appear in The Secret of the Old Clock but make their first appearance in the fifth book, The Secret at Shadow Ranch, in 1931.)
Bess Marvin is still a flirty blond and a slave to fashion, but she's also a whiz at making or fixing anything mechanical. She used to take a lot of teasing about her weight, but now she's "curvy" and proud of it.
Her cousin George Fayne (don't call her Georgia) is still a contrast to Bess: Tall, thin and dark-haired, she's not much interested in boys or clothes. The new George is into the Internet, which comes in handy when Nancy wants to dig up some dirt on a suspect.
Some things haven't changed: Nancy still lives in the Midwestern town of River Heights with her dad, lawyer Carson Drew, and their housekeeper, Hannah Gruen.
In The Secret of the Old Clock, some unpleasant aspects of life in the 1930s show up, such as racial stereotypes and the economic impact of the Great Depression.
Other details might strike modern readers as funny, as when Nancy offers to sell tickets to a benefit dance to a snobby neighbor, who has a fit because the $2 price is "positively exorbitant!"
The first novel's plot revolves around a missing will, which Nancy wants to find because she thinks that snobby neighbor and her family are cheating a pair of good-hearted but penniless sisters out of an inheritance.
You might expect Nancy to face more violence in the 21st century. But in The Secret of the Old Clock, she is roughed up, locked in a closet and left to starve by a thief, then dodges bullets during a car chase. The worst thing that happens to her in Without a Trace is a bump on the head caused by a fall on a slippery staircase.
In the new book she starts out trying to solve a silly neighborhood feud - someone is going around smashing zucchinis in people's backyard gardens - but soon becomes involved in a more serious case when a valuable, bejeweled Faberge egg is stolen from a new neighbor.
As always, Nancy solves both cases with a combination of brains and bravery. And that's one thing about her that hasn't changed and explains her appeal across the years.
Three-quarters of a century ago, girls found in Nancy Drew someone smart, determined, independent and loyal - a role model before the phrase was invented. The new Nancy Drew is the upgraded model.
* The first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of the Old Clock, was published in 1930. Still in print, it was among the 50 bestselling children's books in 2002.
* Four new Nancy Drew books published in March - Without a Trace, A Race Against Time, False Notes and High Risk - bring the number of books about her to 178. Nancy Drew books have sold 200-million copies and been printed in 17 languages.
* "Carolyn Keene" is the author's name on all the books, but they have been written by various teams of writers over the years.
* There were four Nancy Drew movies in the 1930s, a Nancy Drew television series in the 1970s and several Nancy Drew video games in the past decade. There are plans for a new Nancy Drew movie.
