Sharing Nancy Drew

nancydrewcollection
by Oline H. Cogdill

There are several mysteries that parents and their children can share.

First of all, any YA novel will work for parents and teens.

For a list to get you started, take a look at the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar finalists in the young adult category. That also goes for the children’s category.


Lighter mysteries, and many cozies, also cut across the generations.

And harder-edge mysteries often have find a common ground between adults and teens.

Fort Lauderdale’s Literary Feast sends authors into the schools. A couple of years ago Karin Slaughter gave a presentation at Fort Lauderdale High School; at least eight teens told her that they and their parents love her books.

But the Nancy Drew novels find a different commonality among parents and kids.

For many parents, these novels about Nancy Drew were their first introduction to mysteries. These stories about this intuitive high school student, her friends, and life with her single father were also novels about a girl’s independence.

The Nancy Drew novels first appeared in 1930 and have been ghostwritten by several authors under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

Nancy Drew also has spawned a TV series, movies, board games, video games, dolls, coloring books, and puzzles. But nothing beats reading the books. And now it is even easier to find the novels in one place.

Grosset & Dunlap is publishing the Drew novels in gift boxes, starting with Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Books 1-4 ($31.96). More compilations will be coming.

The box set is beautiful and the covers are like those when the series was first published.

Experts tell parents to read with their children. This is a good place to begin.

Oline Cogdill
2015-12-23 09:55:00