Hour 40.5

Hours Spent Reading: 25.5
Books Read: 7
Pages Read: 2086
Money Raised: $707
What I'm listening to: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

Please remember that I'm reading to raise money for Room to Read, which builds libraries, stocks them with books, and trains people to become their librarians.

The Clue in the Diary Carolyn Keene

Oh Nancy, you're so funny. There are two mysteries-- a poor (but clean!) mother and daughter that Nancy and her friends meet at a carnival. The father is off looking for work and supposed to send money, but they haven't heard from him.

On the way home, they see a house burn down. The house belongs to a very rich, but not well-liked character. OF COURSE THE MYSTERIES ARE RELATED!

But! This is the book where Nancy meets Ned! And how! He's moving her car away from the spreading house fire and she thinks he's trying to steal it.

I listened to the first part of this and that was awesome, because all the over-drama was underscored with crazy sound effects and lots of dramatic music. I think I'm going to have to listen to more Nancy Drews for the Nancy Drew challenge. Also, it was narrated by Laura Linney and how can you NOT love Laura Linney?!

Book Provided by... my local library

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So, did Nancy have that fight with Ned? Or not?

Over at Geek Buffet, I'm comparing two different editions of

The Secret in the Old Attic Carolyn Keene

The original was written in 1944, the current edition first came out in 1970. Excitingly, there are big differences between the two! Many differences occur because of the passage in time. In 1970, it’s a bit of stretch for an elderly, but still active, gentleman to be so old that he fought in WWI. Not so in 1944. Also, a soldier who recently died in 1944 probably died in WWII. You also see things like rayon getting switched to poly and more phones in the 1970 edition.

Another thing that changed is race. In 1944, the house with the old attic has “old slave quarters” and Bess utters a horrible line idealizing happy slaves. All this is cut in the new edition. Additionally, the maid, Effie, speaks in a poor, lower class dialect in 1944. In 1970, she speaks “normally.” Effie’s race is never mentioned though.

Overall, 1970 is just much tighter. 1944 tends to have a lot of cliff-hanger scary chapter endings that are explained away as really being nothing in the first few sentences of the next chapter. The 1970 version cuts most of this out. Thankfully.

The biggest change is that 1944 contains a mini-mystery of a romantic subplot with Nancy and Ned. (Ned didn’t ask her to the dance! And some icky guy is really putting the pressure on Nancy to go to the dance with him instead.) This entire subplot is cut from the current edition, which is sad. It was my favorite part of the story and it was rather refreshing to see Nancy have some doubts, even though you knew it would all work out in the end. For a deeper comparison, check out the chapter-by-chapter play-by-play over at Geek Buffet!

Super Spy!

First things first, the new translation of Pippi Longstocking illustrated by the most wonderful Lauren Child is now out. I saw some sample pages at ALA and *drool*.

But today, I thought we'd deal with some old school mysteries. And when I say old school, I mean old school. Super old school. So, today's song is Secret Agent Man.

Anyway, I would like to give a shout out to the fabulous Miss Dana, who loaned me these books in the first place, because she collects first editions of such things-- before they were repeatedly revised.

But, before we get the mysteries, let's put some things in context.

So, first up we have The Girl Sleuth: on the trail of Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and Cherry Ames by Bobbie Ann Mason

Despite being subtitled "On the trail of Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and Cherry Ames," Girl Sleuth spends most of its time discussing Nancy Drew, Honey Bunch, and the Bobbsey Twins. Mason has written a nice, light read on girl mysteries and their feminism roots. The problem lies in that she never entirely figured out what her thesis was. Part of my feels that Mason's upset because Nancy didn't grow up to have the same ideas she did. She spends a lot of time justifying why she loved and read them so much as a kid and how they were really good for her. And then goes on to blast them for being sexist and a bad influence on today's (which, at publication, would be the 70s) youth.

The feminism angle is heavy on 70s second wave rhetoric and some of the coded sexual language seems far fetched (hidden items as virginity and villains as symbolic rapists.)

I much preferred Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak (which is the only book today that Dana didn't loan me. I loaned this one to her.)

In this Girl Sleuth, Rehak gives a very interesting account of the Strademeyer Syndicate who oversaw the ghost-writing of a lot of early century series books for kids. She also profiles Mildred Wirt and Harriet Adams-- the two women who were Carolyn Keene. There is also a great history of women's liberation and its effect on Nancy Drew. Very well done and very readable. I highly recommend it to those who are interested in a history of Nancy Drew.

But now, onto the books

Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Now, this is not the same book I read a few summers ago and discussed here. This is the original. It jumps straight to the plot and is ludicrously un-PC. I have no idea how Nancy finds out about Mr. Crowley's will. It also takes much earlier than the current version. You can tell because of such sentences as "His wife had died during the influenza epidemic following the World War." And such sentences that I now find funny sad, "She was anything but attractive, for she was tall and slender to the point of being 'skinny'." More offensive, but better written than what's being published now.

The Bobbsey Twins in Washington Laura Lee Hope

So, the Bobbsey's all go to Washington and have many adventures and solve a mystery involving things I don't remember. What I remember is that Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey are the WORST parents in the world. There 5-year-old regularly completely wanders off all through DC and no one (a) notices or (b) cares. Yes, for kids to solve crimes and have adventures, there has to be a certain amount of lack of adult supervision, but this was ridiculous. As was the portrayal of African-Americans. Wow.

The Clue of the Stone Lantern Margaret Sutton

Ok, this one, I really enjoyed. There are some gender role issues, but Judy seems to fight them. The mystery was really cool and I didn't feel like smacking most of the characters. This is a series I could definitely read more of. Also, rather well written. I mean, I was actually a little scared when Judy got herself in scary situations. Usually, with Nancy Drew I just yawn. Kids should still be reading this. Even if Judy is grown up and married and stuff.

Dana Girls: By the Light of the Study Lamp Carolyn Keene

So, when I know I won't get to review a book for awhile, I make notes to myself so I remember. I will give someone a prize if they can decipher the following for me:

"same ghostwriter as Nancy--liked black people though! in all of them! terrible!"

No idea what that means, besides something on my view of race relations in the Dana Girls world. But pro or con? I liked the book. I liked how (a) there were two girls and they were both strong and neither was a dumb side kick and (b) they were at boarding school so that solved the no parents issue. Plus, I like boarding school stories. This was my second favorite of the bunch.

Dana sent me a whole 'nother batch of these super old school mysteries, so I'll be curling up with some more soon. Maybe if it ever actually gets like fall--it's mid October and in the upper 80s WTF?! is up with that?!