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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“Nancy Drew: The Scarlet Slipper” Mystery by Carolyn Keene is a fun quick read. I picked it for my book that has Scarlet or Gray in the title for the OSU Alumni reading challenge. Nancy and her friends run into a friend who used to be in their dance class when they were little. Maggie is performing in a ballet production with many up-and-coming young dancers who hope to impress an important critic. The problem is that someone is trying to sabotage Maggie so she can’t be in the production. Can Nancy and her friends figure out who the culprit is in time to save the show? This is a cute little mystery that I will suggest to my students.
It was really cool how they smuggled the jewels in by hiding them IN the painting.
It was good, but definitely not my favorite Nancy drew book. The plot just wasn't as interesting to me. I guess I like it better when there are a lot of people twisted into the mystery, instead of only a few. So: Good, but I've read better.
My very first Nancy Drew, my friend loaned it to me when I was seven.
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It’s time once again to take a look to the past and my love of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. I grew up with the Revised Text (RT), so as I read the books again, I’m concentrating on the Original Text (OT), which I’d never read before. The Scarlet Slipper Mystery OT was first published in 1954.
There’s foreign intrigue in this volume of Nancy Drew Mysteries. The fictional European country of Centrovia is at the heart of the book. There was a revolution eight years ago and many people fled, while others worked in the resistance. In fact, throughout the book so many Centrovians are popping up in River Heights you really have to suspend disbelief. There’s even the case of cousins who hadn’t seen each other in ten years both ending up in River Heights, and Nancy has met both of them. And so many of the Centrovians have aliases, it’s hard to keep track of them all.
In terms of peril, Nancy is pushed down a flight of stairs and twists her ankle, but that doesn’t prevent her from traipsing around the next day with George. Later, she’s kidnapped and stuffed into Ned’s green sports car, bound and gagged and left in the woods near a farmhouse where the suspected bad guys are holing up. When Nancy is rescued by Ned and a policeman, he suggests going into town to eat something since it is hours after dinnertime, but Nancy says her appearance is such that she wouldn’t want to be seen in town, so she suggests going back to the farmhouse of the suspected bad guys and eating the food they left behind! And that’s just what they do. Really?
Later, back at the farmhouse, Nancy and the gang are investigating when the Fontaines show up out of nowhere, having previously been kidnapped. No explanation of how they escaped is given. Then, Bess smells kerosene and wonders what the policeman patrolling the property could be doing with it; she asks Nancy about it but she just shrugs it off. A little while later the smell of kerosene gets stronger, but again, no one thinks anything of it. All the while, I’m screaming in my head, “Nancy, you’re smarter than that! Go investigate.” But they don’t and are surprised when they find themselves stuck in the house on the second floor while it’s on fire. Even a less astute kid would have to scratch their heads at that one.
At one point in the mystery, Nancy finds a knife on the third floor of her house, in a room where the Fontaines stayed, and the letter R is carved into it. Then it says that Nancy and Ned discussed what the R could mean. For an hour! Nancy just doesn’t come off as smart at all in this volume, although she is still good at ballet dancing, despite not having practiced in many years. She’s asked to take someone’s place when they drop out of a performance, and she helps teach little kids at the Fontaine’s dance school.
Overall, there’s too many coincidences, too many Centrovians, too many aliases, and too many times when Nancy is stumped for this to be a good mystery.
I’m not a fan of the original artwork and prefer the RT’s cover much more. It should be noted that for the first time in the OTs since the glossy illustrations were featured in the first several volumes, there were internal illustrations in this book, which I hadn’t seen before in an OT. I’m not sure if they only started when the series when to Picture Cover PC format, or if they were also in the dust-jacketed version since I only have the PCs.
It’s time once again to take a look to the past and my love of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. I grew up with the Revised Text (RT), so as I read the books again, I’m concentrating on the Original Text (OT), which I’d never read before. The Scarlet Slipper Mystery OT was first published in 1954.
There’s foreign intrigue in this volume of Nancy Drew Mysteries. The fictional European country of Centrovia is at the heart of the book. There was a revolution eight years ago and many people fled, while others worked in the resistance. In fact, throughout the book so many Centrovians are popping up in River Heights you really have to suspend disbelief. There’s even the case of cousins who hadn’t seen each other in ten years both ending up in River Heights, and Nancy has met both of them. And so many of the Centrovians have aliases, it’s hard to keep track of them all.
In terms of peril, Nancy is pushed down a flight of stairs and twists her ankle, but that doesn’t prevent her from traipsing around the next day with George. Later, she’s kidnapped and stuffed into Ned’s green sports car, bound and gagged and left in the woods near a farmhouse where the suspected bad guys are holing up. When Nancy is rescued by Ned and a policeman, he suggests going into town to eat something since it is hours after dinnertime, but Nancy says her appearance is such that she wouldn’t want to be seen in town, so she suggests going back to the farmhouse of the suspected bad guys and eating the food they left behind! And that’s just what they do. Really?
Later, back at the farmhouse, Nancy and the gang are investigating when the Fontaines show up out of nowhere, having previously been kidnapped. No explanation of how they escaped is given. Then, Bess smells kerosene and wonders what the policeman patrolling the property could be doing with it; she asks Nancy about it but she just shrugs it off. A little while later the smell of kerosene gets stronger, but again, no one thinks anything of it. All the while, I’m screaming in my head, “Nancy, you’re smarter than that! Go investigate.” But they don’t and are surprised when they find themselves stuck in the house on the second floor while it’s on fire. Even a less astute kid would have to scratch their heads at that one.
At one point in the mystery, Nancy finds a knife on the third floor of her house, in a room where the Fontaines stayed, and the letter R is carved into it. Then it says that Nancy and Ned discussed what the R could mean. For an hour! Nancy just doesn’t come off as smart at all in this volume, although she is still good at ballet dancing, despite not having practiced in many years. She’s asked to take someone’s place when they drop out of a performance, and she helps teach little kids at the Fontaine’s dance school.
Overall, there’s too many coincidences, too many Centrovians, too many aliases, and too many times when Nancy is stumped for this to be a good mystery.
I’m not a fan of the original artwork and prefer the RT’s cover much more. It should be noted that for the first time in the OTs since the glossy illustrations were featured in the first several volumes, there were internal illustrations in this book, which I hadn’t seen before in an OT. I’m not sure if they only started when the series when to Picture Cover PC format, or if they were also in the dust-jacketed version since I only have the PCs.
I read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys throughout my school and college days.
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective who solves crimes with occasional help from her best friends, Bess and George and, her boyfriend Ned. She also has occasional help from her father Carson Drew who runs a private law practice. From finding stolen goods to missing persons and solving mysterious happenings, Nancy is a force of nature.
Until I discovered that Carolyn Keene is a pen name for a whole bunch of ghostwriters, I used to feel confused about the slight differences in each character from books to book over the many series of Nancy Drew mysteries. I like the character of Nancy best in the original books written by Mildred Wirt Benson where Nancy is truly a character to root for – an independent and street smart girl with a penchant for trouble.
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective who solves crimes with occasional help from her best friends, Bess and George and, her boyfriend Ned. She also has occasional help from her father Carson Drew who runs a private law practice. From finding stolen goods to missing persons and solving mysterious happenings, Nancy is a force of nature.
Until I discovered that Carolyn Keene is a pen name for a whole bunch of ghostwriters, I used to feel confused about the slight differences in each character from books to book over the many series of Nancy Drew mysteries. I like the character of Nancy best in the original books written by Mildred Wirt Benson where Nancy is truly a character to root for – an independent and street smart girl with a penchant for trouble.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
I was most impressed in the first chapter, where Nancy, Bess, and George toss out three different words for "purse." They also use "handbag" and "pocketbook." Said item has been misplaced by Bess, who left it somewhere in Ballet School. She has been taking classes in a recent effort to "reduce."
In these books, Bess, almost always described as "plump," has one of two different personalities. Either she loves food and eats whatever she wants, or she loves food but feels guilty about it, and hopes to "reduce" herself to match the slim silhouettes of her friends.
At any rate, she wants her bag, so Nancy drives her to the school, where our heroine officially meets a set of siblings who manage the school and teach the classes. They are immigrants from Centrovia, possibly near France, seemingly inspired by eastern European countries that have been invaded by Russia. The siblings have fled the country, but not before creating a series of paintings that keep appearing in the River Heights area. These paintings are related to a gem smuggling scheme, as usual being conducted by ill-tempered, lowerclass people who know how to use a post office. It seems like a post office is a big destination when Nancy is investigating smugglers and international business.
The Centrovian siblings are perhaps the enemy of one or two other Centrovians who appear in the River Heights area. One bad man, and one man who is hopefully not bad. Or is this the same character? I lost track.
Cool but amazingly impractical spoiler about how (not) to smuggle: It is probably not a good idea to hide gems inside gobs of paint on a canvas, made to look like a picture. How long would that take to dry? Transportation would be difficult and bulky.
The plot in this one did not gel for me, even though many elements were amusing. And it did contain one glaring instance of Nancy's bad judgement. While she is volunteering in the ballet school, she BORROWS a leotard! No idea who it belonged to; was it in a lost and found box or something? The idea seems gross to me. When was the thing last washed?!
In these books, Bess, almost always described as "plump," has one of two different personalities. Either she loves food and eats whatever she wants, or she loves food but feels guilty about it, and hopes to "reduce" herself to match the slim silhouettes of her friends.
At any rate, she wants her bag, so Nancy drives her to the school, where our heroine officially meets a set of siblings who manage the school and teach the classes. They are immigrants from Centrovia, possibly near France, seemingly inspired by eastern European countries that have been invaded by Russia. The siblings have fled the country, but not before creating a series of paintings that keep appearing in the River Heights area. These paintings are related to a gem smuggling scheme, as usual being conducted by ill-tempered, lowerclass people who know how to use a post office. It seems like a post office is a big destination when Nancy is investigating smugglers and international business.
The Centrovian siblings are perhaps the enemy of one or two other Centrovians who appear in the River Heights area. One bad man, and one man who is hopefully not bad. Or is this the same character? I lost track.
Cool but amazingly impractical spoiler about how (not) to smuggle: It is probably not a good idea to hide gems inside gobs of paint on a canvas, made to look like a picture. How long would that take to dry? Transportation would be difficult and bulky.
The plot in this one did not gel for me, even though many elements were amusing. And it did contain one glaring instance of Nancy's bad judgement. While she is volunteering in the ballet school, she BORROWS a leotard! No idea who it belonged to; was it in a lost and found box or something? The idea seems gross to me. When was the thing last washed?!
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No