Psychic Latina Nancy: In "Chasing the Jaguar", Martika Galvez is a Mexican-American teenager solving a mystery while planning her quincenera, dealing with the normal teen hassles at school and coping with her parents' recent separation. Author Michele Greene ... an actress best known for playing lawyer Abby Perkins in the 1980s NBC show "L.A. Law" ... was a fan of Nancy Drew mystery novels because of the young sleuth's intelligence and independence and has embued her character with these same strengths ... as well as giving her psychic powers. Read more ... or buy Chasing the Jaguar (Martika Galvez Mystery)

Rudy Ripped: Six of Rudy Nappi's paintings, including the 1966 covers to "The Mystery of the 99 Steps" and "The Clue in the Old Album", have been recently posted for sale on eBay. Unfortunately it wasn't with Nappi's permission. Read more about what the New York Post calls "The Mystery of the Missing Artwork" ... take a look at some Nancy covers by Rudy at www.series-books.com ... read about Nancy there as well ... or check out other non-Nancy covers by Rudy ... and see what by Rudy has sold lately ...

Nancy and Celebrating Women's Basketball: You may have missed the 43rd Annual Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries and College of Education Event "Celebrating Women's Basketball Past and Present" that was held last week but you wouldn't want to miss learning about the Mildred Wirt Benson archives the library holds, some of which were included in the celebration, would you? Read more about celebrating BB ... or the Iowa Women's Archives ... and especially about Mildred Wirt Benson archives ... Or maybe you would like to know more about the University of Iowa sponsored Nancy Drew Conference in April 1993 ...

Nancy In Tight Pink Shirt: The blurb for this site says it all "As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, prediction." Read latest Nancy chatter at Kotaku ...

I'll take Nancy for 5 Points: In the Accelerated Reading Program at Hucrest Elementary in Roseburg Oregon a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery is worth five points, while "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is worth 29. Hmmmm ... who is this "Harry Potter" character? And how are the kids at Hucrest doing? Read more about Hucrest ... or read more about the Accelerated Reading Program ...

Crime Lab Detectives: At Building for Kids in Appleton, Wisconsin you can be Nancy Drew ... learning about forensic science, hair analysis, logic and interviewing suspects. And you get a notebook.

The Johnsons have been away on a weeklong vacation to Hawaii. The next door neighbor noticed a broken window one morning and went over to the house to check it out. When she looked in the window, she noticed the pet goldfish has been spilled out of its bowl and had died ...

The exhibit is from Discovery Museum in Arkansas and will stay in Appleton until Jan. 2. Read more ... Check out Building for Kids ... Visit Discovery Museum ... And get the real scoop ...

Channeling the Girl Detective: "How Nancy Drew Saved My Life" by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, a Danbury CT author, is described as "part Charlotte Bronte, part chick-lit and part Nancy Drew." Read more here ... and here ...

Hep to Nancy Drew: Paula Poundstone's cat, Hep, has "taken quite a liking to Nancy Drew" or so Paula says. Read more ...

The Creature of Kapu Cave: Her Interactive today announced that Nancy Drew - The Creature of Kapu Cave has gone gold and will ship in October. Kapu Cave is the fifteenth installment in the award-winning, Nancy Drew PC adventure game series from Her Interactive. For the first time you will have the ability to play as three different characters - Nancy, Joe Hardy or Frank Hardy depending on the skills and clues needed to solve the mystery. Sounds fun. Akamai. How you figga? Wikiwiki now and read more ...

Nancy Drew Gone Wrong: Snooping fun in Ohio that ends with a shooting serves as a harsh reminder that real life adventures don't always turn out the same as we might think from reading the Nancy Drew stories. Learn more ...

Nancy Investigations: Ignore the fact that as a child Nancy Stevens read every Nancy Drew book twice and then in 1980 became the first woman to join Vermont's old boys' club of private investigators ... eh ... I think not. Help us Nancy Stevens ... you're our only hope. Read on ...

Nancy Takes Tea: The Nancy Drew Mystery book club meets Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Beehive Tea Room, 12 W. Broadway (300 South), Salt Lake City. Tickets are $8, including lunch, available at Sam Weller's Bookstore, 254 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Mmmmm ... the Beehive apparently has fine quality loose-leaf teas, Chai, hot chocolate, French Press coffee, tea lattes and bubble teas, and frappes and smoothies as well as soup, sandwiches, salads, sweet treats and free wireless. Eh? Bubble tea? I had to wikipedia this and learned that bubble tea is "a tea beverage with tapioca balls mixed in. The Chinese name for bubble tea translates to 'Pearl milk tea'. When tea is shaken, a thin layer of bubbles forms on the surface. Because of the foaming process, any tea that is shaken during preparation can be called bubble tea." Read more ...

Nancy Game Help: Feeling undressed with Danger by Design, missed the Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, too late with Secret of the Old Clock, stumbling cluelessly under the Curse of Blackmoor Manor, lost in the dark with The Secret of Shadow Ranch, voted off in Danger on Deception Island, dizzy from The Haunted Carousel, hounded by failure in Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, all thumbs with Secret of the Scarlet Hand, can't quite make The Final Scene, stuck penniless in Treasure in the Royal Tower, frightened by the Message in a Haunted Mansion, getting only static with Stay Tuned for Danger, and ready to kill to get an answer for Secrets Can Kill? You are not the only one stuggling and perhaps you might want to visit Her Interactive Forums for help. Do it now ...

More than Nancy: Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University has compiled a great list of girl's literature that goes "beyond Nancy Drew". Read the lit list ...

Jamaica Nancy Fan Gets Top Grades: Ashleigh Campbell, who has read 30 or so of the regular Nancy Drew series, won the Bank of Nova Scotia's scholarship, which is five years of books, tuition and uniforms as well as a US$2,000-grant, for being the top performer for the County of Cornwall in the Grade Six Achievement Test. Ashleigh finished with a 97.5 average. Read more ...

Nancy at Capital Fringe Festival: The inaugural Capital Fringe Festival, running from July 20-30 in DC, will host 400 different theatrical performances in more than 30 venues around the US capital city. Among the many performances is "Slippery Sleuth and Ancient Muse", a dance show where fictional girl-detective Nancy Drew and old-world poetess Sappho share the same space, performed by Dance Performance Group. Read more ...

Nancy as Lesson in Life: Falling in love with "Nancy and the Boys" leads to life long addiction. Read more ...

Nancy Drew Interest Leads to Police Academy: If you read Nancy and you want to know more about what police do then the Police Department in Hendersonville TN has a class for you. This worked out real well for recent academy graduate Holly Folsom who says, "Some of the first books I ever read were Nancy Drew books." Applications for the Citizen Police Academy may be picked up at the department's front desk. The cost is $30, which covers the all materials and supplies. And if you're lucky you might find a husband like Holly did. Read more ...

Does anybody really know what time it is ... or maybe the Secret of the Old Clock? Someone who got this game for Christmas, someone who just blows through Sudoku and Zelda, someone who is more than a little outside the 10 - 14 year old age group this game is targeted for, is still struggling with helping dear Emily Crandall and would certainly like to know. No, not me, I'm just sitting on the sidelines watching her change tires, golf and look for clues while drinking just about any Cabernet Sauvignon she can find. Hmmmm ... maybe that's the problem. Oh well ... anyway, the point is that there's a nicely done review of Secret of the Old Clock PC game here ...

Graphic Nancy Wins a Franklin: The first volume in the Nancy Drew graphic novel series from Papercutz, that would be "The Demon of River Heights", was awarded the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Award for best graphic novel. The Franklin Awards are given out by the Publishers Marketing Association, the independent publishers association, at an annual gala held just before the opening of Book Expo America, the book publishing industry's convention. The Graphic Novels category is new this year. Hmmmm .... maybe I need to find a copy of "The Demon" somewhere ... and while I'm thinking about it, maybe I should check out Netfix for Nancy videos and add them to my queue. Learn more about the Franklins ... or about Book Expo America ...

What would Nancy Drew: Kristi Martinelli, 18-year-old Grayson High School senior who holds a private investigator's license from the state of Georgia and thinks "It's pretty cool to follow people" was a big fan of the Nancy Drew detective novel series and is now apparently living the life ... court papers, drug-trafficking, prom dresses ... oh my! Read more ...

Nancy Wins: Mystery Writers of America have announced their 2006 Edgar Winners. Among them, as top book in the Best Critical/Biographical category, is Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak from Harcourt. Read more about 2006 awards at MWA ...

Nancy Drew at AMAZON.CA : Tomorrow, Tuesday May 9th, is the release date for the 1995 Nelvana versions of both Nancy Drew - The Complete 1st Season and The Hardy Boys - The Complete 1st Season at Amazon Canada. Read more ...

All About Nancy ... well, not exactly ... but the short piece called "The Ghost of Nancy Drew" that Kihm Winship includes under "miscellany" at Faithful Readers where it almost gets lost among the many articles about beer such as "Beer Frames: The Meaning of Malty Movie Memories" not only gives an insightful history of the series, but also provides a sense of the fun the books provide and is well worth reading . You could do that right now. Read article ...

Project Sunshine: In their newly released title "The Fake Heir" we get what the Papercutz people call "a little peek at the type of thing Nancy Drew does when she's not solving a mystery" and learn that:

Nancy, along with her best friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne, appear at a local pediatric hospital in River Heights as Project Sunshine volunteers, wearing the organization's distinctive yellow T-shirts. In a comics panel, in which Nancy is making balloon animals, while George juggles, and Bess entertains as a clown, the classic Carolyn Keene character explains "once a month, we do a little act for all the children with serious illnesses, just to try to bring them, well, a little sunshine."

Project Sunshine is a nonprofit organization which provides many free programs and services to children with cancer, AIDS, and other life-threatening illnesses. Project Sunshine Week, a special week in NYC in which businesses collaborate to raise funds and awareness about Project Sunshine, is coming up May 8th to May 15th. Read more about Project Sunshine ... read news release ... or read more about the fifth Nancy Drew graphic novel from Papercutz, "The Fake Heir".

Seventy-six Years Ago: Claire Lui, editorial assistant at American Heritage magazine, has written an overview of the launch of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's Nancy Drew seventy-six years ago on April 28, 1930.

Nancy Drew, the linchpin of the Stratemeyer Syndicate for the next 54 years, would be Edward Stratemeyer’s last hurrah. Twelve days after the first Nancy Drew book was published, he died of pneumonia. Nancy now became the work of two separate women: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, the new head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and Mildred Wirt Benson, the ghostwriter behind most of the early mysteries. Together, Adams and Benson were Carolyn Keene, the author listed in the Library of Congress as Nancy Drew's author. Their differing visions of Nancy would eventually be reflected in two versions of the series.

Lui believes that Nancy, who has never gone out of print, and who is now appearing in new stories will last for at least another 76 years. Read article ...

Nancy Prew: Huh? This blurb from westender.com in Vancouver tells you everything you need to know.

All-American teenage sleuth Nancy Prew (not to be confused with all-American teenage sleuth Nancy Drew, for obvious potentially litigious reasons) is transported from the 1950s to 2006, only to be faced with a dastardly group of conservative evil-doers that plans to turn back the hands of time to Prew's era of chasteness and "family values." Mmmm... that's good satire! The always disrespectful and irreverent Screaming Weenie Productions presents Clue in the Fast Lane, presented as a three-episode series April 11-29 at Odyssey Nightclub (1251 Howe), 7:30 p.m. Tickets $10 from ScreamingWeenie.com, Little Sister's and Tech Direct PC, or $12 at the door ($25 for all three episodes).

Wonder if this show will ever come east where I might have a chance to see it. I suppose I'll just have to settle for Lucy Liu in "Lucky Number Slevin" ... movie also stars Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis ... hmmmm. Read more ...

Teen Spirit: Nancy Drew and others are used by author Ilana Nash in her book, "American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture", from Indiana University Press to show, by "illuminating oppressive patterns of representation of teenage girls in American movies, plays, novels and TV and radio shows from 1930 to 1965", a mass culture campaign intent on maintaining "patriarchal hegemony" ... sounds like serious stuff ... might be too much for me but maybe you want to learn more ... and you can in this review ... or if you buy and read the book ...

The "Lost" Outlines of Carolyn Keene are revealed by Cleolinda Jones - self proclaimed "writer, grad student, webmistress (whp-chaaaa!), editor, ersatz entertainment journalist, erstwhile translator, feminist, dragonslayer, heroine addict, space cadet, and former CIA operative to Cuba" with the web product to back these claims - at her Occupation Girl Livejournal site. Good stuff with heavy comments from Cleolinda's peeps. Read the outline ...

Hollywood Update: Filming is apparently underway for The Mystery in Hollywood Hills which I stumbled across and mentioned some time early last month. Cinematical seems to have the most comprehensive scoop on this and as of 17 Feb is reporting:

It's on. Starring Eric Roberts-spawn (and Aquamarine's girl-who-finds-the-mermaid) Emma Roberts, the Nancy Drew movie has had a lot of people (many of whom totally won't admit it) in a nostalgic frenzy since news of its existence was announced way too long ago. Now, finally, there's some good news: production has begun. Woo hoo! Not only that, but we've got a plot (the news of which is possibly slightly less good).In order to get her somewhere with lots of pretty people and parties ...

Hey, I'm not gonna cut and paste the whole piece. If you really need to know more (some will, some won't ) you can read all about ND MHH and more directly at Cinematical. Do it now ...

So Dire, So Dangerous, and then Poof: The 2006 Buffalo News Short Story contest, which this year focused on mystery/suspense writing, attracted over 130 writers and Nancy makes an appearance in the First Place winner's story:

The roar of the water was a reminder of childhood, summer days flirting with summer flings, and the bittersweet promise of freedom implicit in every Senior Skip Day.

"The Bills make me want to SHOUT -" Angela hunted for the source of the song, clambering up the statue of Nikolai Tesla like so many Goat Island tourists before her, the bronze of the statue polished by their passing.

The cell phone in Tesla's lap was Michael's, of course. And as she reached for it, she remembered mocking his fanboy devotion when he played her the ring tone, that song.

"I see you were smart enough to listen, and come alone," the caller hissed, in a French accent as fake as Groucho glasses. "Now we shall see whether you are smart enough to save your brother's life."

You will want to read the rest of this story ...

Pardeeville Science Fair: Eh? What does a Science Fair have to do with Nancy Drew? And Pardeeville? Well ... a series of clues ... boot prints, tool marks, finger prints ... apperently were left by the person behind the theft of "The Secret of the Old Clock" ... a first edition printed in 1930, which was stolen from the library on the eve of the fictitious "Nancy Drew First Edition Library Tour" and students have to solve the case. Hmmmm ... wonder if it had a dust jacket? Read more about this strange case ... and, since I know you want to, you may as well learn more about Pardeeville too ...

Being the Detective: Admit it ... you always wanted to be just like Nancy ... without getting your shoes muddy of course ... and now you can by reading reports from Steve Huff on Huff's Crime Blog, doing some research then sending Huff your findings and tips. This recent piece on Neil Entwistle by Huff is a great place to start regarding some techniques for doing internet research. Do it now ...

Watching the Detectives: What would Nancy have done here? A state police detective said Tuesday that a dominatrix told investigators she spent two hours trying to decide what to do with the body of a client who authorities believe died of a heart attack during a bondage session. Barbara Asher, who is on trial for manslaughter in the death of former North Hampton resident Michael Lord, told police that she and her boyfriend settled on a plan to chop up the body and dump it because it was too big to carry out of Asher's condominium, said the detective, Sgt. Dermot Moriarty. Read more ...

Discussion Groups: There are quite a few groups at Yahoo for ND fans to meet and discuss ND with others. Among these, more or less in order of size and activity, the top 10 currently are NancyDrewSleuths, TheNancyDrewGroup, nancydrew2, DetectivesClub, nancydrewmysteryclub, NancyDrewDiscussionGroup, nancydrewfanklub, Nancy_Drew_Trailblazers, Nancydrew, and SleuthsCHAT. I've added a link to Yahoo Directory entry for Nancy Drew to the menu at the right. You can use that link to do some investigating and decide which of these groups best meets your needs.

Nancy Boy: OK ... so there was a lot more to the Nancy Drew (and Hardy Boys) stories than I realized when I first read them ... or when I reread them years later. Might be time to revisit them again with ideas presented by Michael Bronski in mind. He writes that "teen-sleuth novels taught me that I could have a mysterious, adventuresome, erotic imagination on my own" and the examples of "explosive element" in the original stories that he presents certainly seem to support his argument ... at the very least they could make for an interesting conversational gambit when you are next in need of such. Read more ...

Secrets of the Stratemeyer Syndicate: This program on Sunday, January 22 in Guilford CT by two of Syndicate founder Edward Stratemeyer's great granddaughters, former Nancy Drew ghostwriter Cynthia Adams Lum, and her sister, Guilford resident and past Syndicate researcher Dr. Kimberley Stratemeyer Adams looks like it could be very interesting. Learn more ...

The Delight of Used Books: A former ND reader who's taste has since "recovered" confesses to becoming "shamelessly giddy" after stumbling across the complete set of Nancy Drew in a used book store. Learn more ...

Her Interactive's Morgan Woolverton: A short interview with 3D artist Woolverton who does Nancy Drew for Her Interactive about his current interests and influences is available at Gamasutra. And I've added link to Her Interactive to menu at right.

You Too Can Nancy Drew: Boston University is opening a private investigation program through the Center for Professional Education led by Tom Shamshak, a law enforcement veteran of 21 years who is president of Shamshak Investigative Services, and is also a member of the Licensed Private Detectives Association of Massachusetts . The program, which runs 160 hours over six months on Saturdays starts January 21 and addresses Foundations of Professional Investigation, Internet Research, Public Records Research, Investigative Interviewing, Investigative Surveillance, Legal Issues in Professional Investigation and Practice Management for Professional Investigators. Sounds like just what Nancy could use but yikes ... it's $4995. If you're still interested you can read more ...

Wikipedia: Of the 905,140 articles that are reported to be currently in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, there is an excellent one on Nancy which includes a concise history as well as plot summaries for many of the ND titles. I've added a link to the Wikipedia article under "More Nancy Sites" on the menu at right.

The Mystery in Hollywood Hills: Jerry Weintraub Productions - the folks who did among other films, Karate Kid and its two sequels as well as Ocean's Twelve remake, the dreadful Ocean's Twelve and quite possibly an Ocean's Thirteen - has apparently begun work on a Nancy Drew movie with Emma Roberts, star of Nickeloden's Unfabulous and niece of Julia Roberts, with a release planned for 2007. In the movie teen detective Nancy Drew (Emma) accompanies her father on a business trip to Los Angeles, where she happens upon clues to a murder mystery involving a movie star.

Progress Report and the Plan: So far so good. Links on the left retrieve a listing of books for sale as extracted by AddAll - a free service that searches for books online from more than 40 online book services and 20,000 dealers. So far I've got the 56 Grosset and Dunlap titles up. You'll notice I've sorted than by "price descending" because, at least for me, its always fun to see what prices are being asked for some of the early copies. I've also included a link to Nancy Drew items on Ebay - you'll see there's a lot of fun stuff there. Lastly for now on the left menu are books about Nancy Drew - and so far I've only got Farah's Guide by David Farah listed - this book is absolutely indispensable for the serious collector. Finally on the right menu I intend to link to other sites about Nancy. I've started with Jenn Fisher's Nancy Drew Sleuth and Nancy Drew World by Lea Shangraw Fox. I'm still discovering others.

Nancy Drew Enthusiast Launched: If I hadn't found those five old Nancy Drew books in dust jackets at the used book store down the street several weeks ago and hadn't then bought a copy of Farah's Guide this site might not have been put together ... but I did ... and now I'm looking forward to building this site as an online resource for Nancy Drew enthusiasts everywhere. Your help with links and news would be very much appreciated. This should be fun.