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A review by threadpanda
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
4.0
Melanie Rehak's nonfiction book Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her is an in-depth look at the people behind the wonderful series of Nancy Drew books. Rehak traces the development of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a collection of ghostwriters presided over by Edward Stratemeyer, and covers the "battle" between Harriet Stratemeyer and Mildred Wirt Benson.
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book when I picked it up, but having read many of the Nancy Drew Files books when I was younger and loving the character, I really wanted to read it. I really enjoyed this book. More than a character study of Nancy Drew (who made detecting look awesome before Veronica Mars was ever thought of), it was a study of the people behind the character. It begins with Edward Stratemeyer, mastermind behind Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, and a number of other series books that you might be familiar with, but also encapsulates the general feelings of the times in which these books were created (the first Nancy Drew was published in the depths of the Depression in 1930). It's a wonderful look at the history and culture surrounding the world of juvenile literature from the late 1800s to the present.
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book when I picked it up, but having read many of the Nancy Drew Files books when I was younger and loving the character, I really wanted to read it. I really enjoyed this book. More than a character study of Nancy Drew (who made detecting look awesome before Veronica Mars was ever thought of), it was a study of the people behind the character. It begins with Edward Stratemeyer, mastermind behind Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, and a number of other series books that you might be familiar with, but also encapsulates the general feelings of the times in which these books were created (the first Nancy Drew was published in the depths of the Depression in 1930). It's a wonderful look at the history and culture surrounding the world of juvenile literature from the late 1800s to the present.