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Missed on Nancy Drew mysteries but other bks


shootingstar

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Unfortunately I missed out a huge number of Nancy Drew mystery books as a kid-teen since the bks. were always so popular and signed out at the library. And parents couldn't afford to buy books for us.

So I reread "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, American classic written in 1800's that featured 4 sisters.. 

I identified most with Jo, the rebel, writer who eventually marries an older guy and they had some boys. Bks. I read were emblematic of my Canadian teens in late 1960's-1970s, etc.:  Pippi Longstocking (writer of Swedish background), Ramona girl character (by Beverly Cleary), books by Jean Little (a Canadian author who tends to feature central child characters who are disabled, etc.) , yes I read Lucy Maud Montgomery's books (Anne of Green Gables and a whole pile of others).  Not surprisingly the most popular for girls, feature girl character who was independent, slight rebel, solved her own problems, had her own adventures.

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I'm still furious Amy got Jo's trip to France. :angry:

I read a bunch of Nancy Drew books as a kid, but my favorite series was the Trixie Belden series about a girl, her brothers and their friends who had a cool secret club and went around solving mysteries.

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25 minutes ago, Kirby said:

I'm still furious Amy got Jo's trip to France. :angry:

I read a bunch of Nancy Drew books as a kid, but my favorite series was the Trixie Belden series about a girl, her brothers and their friends who had a cool secret club and went around solving mysteries.

You're right....Amy was kinda spoiled.  But Jo was a good older sister and didn't get jealous much.  And Amy got Laurence, the handsome dark-haired boy as her man.  But Jo got the Professor and probably a more comparable partner intellectually.  

I think I saw Trixie Belden bk or 2 kicking around at the library.  But my book nose was probably somewhere else.  I read voraciously. During a summer, I probably ploughed through over 40 books.  After all, parents too poor to send us to camp.

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I know Prof Baer was the right match for Jo, but I'm still mad Amy got Laurie as well as the trip to France.  I can hold a grudge with the best of them.

I also liked the Judy Bolton series that was a bit before my time, but my Mom recommended them.

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10 minutes ago, Further said:

I was a Hardy Boys fan, my mother worked for a wealthy family that had all the books and acted as my library. 

I also was a Trixie Belden fan, the 5 & dime store carried them and I could afford to buy them on my own.

And Tom Swift

And earlier The Borrowers, they were great 

My partners spent his newspaper delivery money on Hardy Boys books.  He too was a voracious reader...as a kid. Coincidental. 

I loved the Borrowers.  A hit among several of us in our family.

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Now that I'm thinking about these, I recall a number of other "series" books - Cherry Ames who started as a student nurse and then became ever sort of nurse known to mankind.  The Connie Blair mystery series always had colors in their names.

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46 minutes ago, Kirby said:

Now that I'm thinking about these, I recall a number of other "series" books - Cherry Ames who started as a student nurse and then became ever sort of nurse known to mankind.  The Connie Blair mystery series always had colors in their names.

Afraid I'm not familiar with those series.  I did read the whole of Little House on the Prairies series, by Laura Ignalls Wilder.  

I just read 1 of Judy Blume's bks. before I moved onto other stuff.  She was of course iconic to cover menstruation, teen sex, death, etc.  in novels for teens.

I bypassed a lot of the picture books as a kid, because father wanted my English improved  and I was reading more classic Grimm's fairytales where the European violence/ruthlessness was not  yet removed for children of today.

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51 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Ramona girl character (by Beverly Cleary)

I read an assortment of her books - from the Beezus & Ramona ones to the Henry Huggins ones.  Also loved Encyclopedia Brown.  We had a mixture of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books as well. All sorts of fun books for the elementary school crowd.

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1 hour ago, Kirby said:

I'm still furious Amy got Jo's trip to France. :angry:

I read a bunch of Nancy Drew books as a kid, but my favorite series was the Trixie Belden series about a girl, her brothers and their friends who had a cool secret club and went around solving mysteries.

2 wks. ago, a millennial mother at work, told me how excited her 10 yr. daughter was to read Nancy Drew books.  Gosh, that series will last another 100 years.  Just kinda neat and amazing. ;)  Let's hope it's not replaced by robot Nancy Drew.

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54 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I read an assortment of her books - from the Beezus & Ramona ones to the Henry Huggins ones.  Also loved Encyclopedia Brown.  We had a mixture of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books as well. All sorts of fun books for the elementary school crowd.

Oh yea, Encyclopedia Brown.  I remember the books! :)  I didn't know boys read some Ramona books. I knew some girls who did read some Hardy Boys mysteries.

The good thing about the show Big Bang Theory....was to make geeks cool and part of popular culture in a positive way.  A good thing for geek boys and girls growing up.  I was one of them... except I didn't wear glasses.

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1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

Oh yea, Encyclopedia Brown.  I remember the books! :)  I didn't know boys read some Ramona books. I knew some girls who did read some Hardy Boys mysteries.

The good thing about the show Big Bang Theory....was to make geeks cool and part of popular culture in a positive way.  A good thing for geek boys and girls growing up.  I was one of them... except I didn't wear glasses.

The Cleary books were all sort of intertwined, but reality is that in a house with older sisters, many of the books readily available are ones they have read.  We had a large shared bookcase in the upstairs hallway that held many books, so you just grabbed interesting ones when you saw them.  Or, when you were in a sibling's rooms and see a book on their bookshelf, you would grab it for yourself. 

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