So who named Togo?

Thanks once again for voting in last week's poll! I hope you had a good time with it. Here's how the voting ended--6 people thought Nancy named Togo, 5 voted for Hannah, 3 thought Carson named him, 2 people thought it was George, 1 person thought Ned did it, and no one voted for poor little Bess. Before I read about this, my guess would have been Nancy, so the answer really surprised me.

The person to name Togo is none other than Bess! In the original 25 chapter version of #14 The Whispering Statue, Nancy, Bess, and George find the stray terrier in a park in the first chapter. After some discussion on what to do with him and Nancy decides to take him home, Bess suggests they call him Togo. From that moment on, Nancy's new friend is then referred to as Togo. Nancy never even commented on whether or not she liked the name!

This week's poll is an opinion poll. There have been many actresses through the years to play Nancy Drew and now it's your turn to voice who is your favorite! Is it Bonita Granville, the actress who originally played Nancy in the black and white 1930's episodes? Or maybe it is Pamela Sue Martin or Janet Louise Johnson who played Nancy in the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mystery Series on television in the 70's? Could it have be Tracy Ryan from the short lived 1995 TV series or Maggie Lawson from the 2002 pilot of another Nancy Drew TV series? Or finally, is it Emma Roberts who recently portrayed Nancy in the 2007 movie Nancy Drew?

To vote, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Thanks so much for taking the time to vote! I'll post the results next Sunday evening.

A liddle part of my Nancy Drew collection

Back in the late 60's and early 70's, Mattel produced a line of small dolls, similar to Barbie, but much smaller (even smaller than Kelly). The dolls were called Liddle Kiddles and although they haven't been sold in stores for over 30 years, they can still be found today, mainly at estate sales and on eBay. However, many of the dolls that survived are in very poor condition.

Several years ago, I started a new hobby: purchasing troubled dolls and using dollmaking restoration techniques, transforming them into beloved characters. My favorites of course, are my Nancy Drew Kiddles.

After cleaning the doll and reparing tears and broken wires, I then restore the doll's hair to it's original state and repaint facial features. When creating a character like Nancy, I make an outfit similar to what she is wearing on the cover of the book, add miniature accessories, and then try to pose her in the same way she is featured.

I've included pictures of four of the Nancy Drew dolls that I've created: The Secret of the Old Clock, The Secret of Shadow Ranch, Mystery of the Tolling Bell, and Clues to Good Sleuthing, featuring a detective-clad Nancy and her faithful friend Togo. I hope you enjoy this little peek inside my Nancy Drew collection!

Answer to the puzzle...

Awesome job finding the answer Meatloafbandit and Jewel! You are absolutely correct with the answer of: [Fingerprints.] Thanks for taking the time to do the puzzle!

A Nancy Drew Scavenger Hunt!

Use this Her Interactive link and the clues below to see if
you can discover what Nancy is currently investigating:

CRY•HENRY•17 (-ATE)
SHA•DAVE•2
DOG•JEFF•6 (-AK)
CLK•EMILY•8
DDI•ANDY•36 (-L)

Feel free to submit your answer under "Comments" if you figure it out.
I'll wait to post them until Friday, along with the answer.
Good luck!

Last week's results and a new trivia poll!

Thanks again for your awesome support in voting! Last week, sixteen of you cast your vote. It was close, but by a two vote margin, you decided that Frank Hardy is the one for Nancy to pair with George! Nick Falcone came in second with six votes, and Alejandro del Rio and Kit Foley received one vote each.

This week's poll is a little different. Instead of it being an opinion poll, I thought it would be fun to throw in a little trivia. But, you'll have to do a little sleuthing for the answer to this one! This week's question, "Who named Togo?" To find the poll, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. Even if you don't know the answer for certain, go ahead and give it a try!

Where is River Heights?

The truth is, no one knows for sure, as Nancy Drew's hometown of River Heights is in reality only a mythical place. It's location is based upon each ghost writers' decision of where they think it should be and how the reader interprets that.

Mildred Wirt Benson, the original writer of the Nancy Drew books said that when she imagined River Heights, she had her own home state of Iowa in mind. In the books that she wrote, you will often find descriptions of cornfields, farmlands, and references to the Midwest. Emerson College, where Ned attends school, is located on a tributary of the Ohio River.

In other books, Nancy's father makes trips out "west" to Chicago, which would make Indiana and Ohio seem like logical locations for River Heights. In her book titled, The Mystery of Nancy Drew, Betsy Caprio suggests that River Heights is located in Holmes County, Ohio. By interviewing the Nancy Drew authors and analyzing the books carefully, she actually created a map of River Heights.

In the later yellow hardbacks and the revised versions of the original books, River Heights was portrayed to be somewhere farther east, like in New Jersey (which interestingly enough happened to be the location of the Stratemeyer Syndicate offices).

The location changed once again when years later, the writers' guidelines for the Case Files state that River Heights is a suburb of Chicago.

Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois? The bottom line is that the location of River Heights is left completely to the reader's imagination for where they picture it to be.

Answers to the puzzle!

Great job R.G., Grace, Jewel, and Annonymous! All of you got the correct quote!! The answer is:

["No I was speaking to my husband, my second husband, soon to be exhusband if he continues to crawl on the furniture like that."]

And most of you were correct in who said it. It was: [Prudence Rutherford]

The trickiest part seemed to be in which game it was from. The answer is: [SSH]

Thanks to all for your participation! :D

Test your sleuthing skills!

Decode the following secret message and find the quote.
Then see if you can remember who said it and what ND game it's from:

Please feel free to post your answers if you figure it out.
I'll wait to post them until Friday, along with the answers.
Have fun!

*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*•..•*

Here are a few hints for anyone who is interested:
Little Hint:
[Nancy used this method to crack a mysterious message in one of the games.]
Big Hint:
[Start at n, end at t]
Really Big Hint:
[The first word is No]

Nancy's matchmaking results...

Thanks to your votes last week, it looks like Nancy's clear choice for Bess is going to be Dave Gregory! Eight out of fifteen of you voted for Dave, three voted for Joe Hardy, three for Brady Armstrong, and one for Henry Bolet.

In this week's poll, Nancy is trying to decide between four eligible bachelors for George! Who do you think she should pick?

What is an "Original" Nancy Drew?

Harriet Adams, daughter of the founder of Stratemeyer Syndicate, took over writing the Nancy Drew series in 1959 and began a revision of the first 34 books. Soon after, the yellow hardback cover format was introduced. The revisions were made because Harriet felt that the books needed to be shorter and Nancy needed to reflect the modern values of today's teenage girl. The revisions took many years and were finally completed in 1977. Volumes 35-56 never had revisions and have kept the same cover art since first being introduced.

The easiest way to tell whether you have an original or a revised copy is not by looking at the outside of the book, but rather the inside. The original stories contain 25 chapters and the revisions have 20 chapters. Trying to determine which version you have based on the cover can be tricky, especially when it comes to the first seven books in the series.

Even though volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 were published with two types of picture covers in the yellow hardback format, all contain only the revised 20 chapter stories. The revisions had already been made by the time the yellow hardback format was introduced. #5 The Secret of Shadow Ranch has two kinds of covers and both original and revised versions of text. #6 The Secret of Red Gate Farm has only one cover and only contains the revised version text. #7 The Clue in the Diary, is misleading because it has the same familiar cover for both the 25 and the 20 chapter versions.

As a side note, even though Nancy Drew books 57-64 are now available in the glossy yellow hardcover format, they are not considered to be part of the original yellow hardback series. The primary reason is that these books were initially published as paperback books by Simon & Schuster (instead of Grosset & Dunlap) and the original team of writers and illustrators were no longer involved. Collectors and Nancy Drew enthusiasts include these books in the Nancy Drew Digest Paperback category.

The results are in...

Thank you all for voting in last week's poll! This time, we had a total of 18 votes. The question was: Other than Nancy, who is your favorite character in the original books?

The results? Ned was the big winner with 7 votes, George was next with 4 votes, Bess received 3 votes, 2 people voted for Hannah, and Carson and Togo each got 1 vote.

I just posted a new poll for the week, which will end next Sunday evening. This week's question is: Nancy is playing matchmaker. Who should she pair up with Bess? Be prepared! Nancy is on a roll and has plans for George next week! Have fun and thanks for voting! :D

A Nancy Drew Sudoku

To solve the Sudoku, fill in the missing numbers 1-9. Each number will appear only once in each row horizontally, in each column vertically, and in each of the 9 sections. Usually there is only one correct way to solve the puzzle, so if you're off by one number, it may not work. Clues from Nancy Drew games are given to get you going!

Clues (the first number is the row and the second number is the column--use the numbers like you would coordinates):

1-4 - the number of letters in Gilbert's last name (CRY)
2-7 - the number of suspects you talk to in the high school in SCK
5-3 - all of the characters (including Nancy) on board Jake Hurley's train
8-7 - the number of letters in Mr. Rose's first name in SSH

When you think you have the solution to the puzzle, post your answer under Comments. I won't post any of the answers until late Saturday afternoon so that the puzzle isn't spoiled for anyone. I hope you have fun with it! And if you'd like me to do another next week, just let me know.

Edit: So far I've gotten two completely differently solutions to this puzzle, but both work out perfectly! Nice going Grace and Jewel! :D

So just who is Carolyn Keene?

Since there isn't really a person named Carolyn Keene that wrote the Nancy Drew books, trying to find the true author can be as baffling as solving a Nancy Drew mystery. Because of early confidentiality agreements, ghost writer names were not allowed to be revealed, so for fifty years the public was under the impression that the books really were written by a mysterious person named Carolyn Keene.

The year was 1929. Edward Stratemeyer was the founder of Stratemeyer Syndicate and was enjoying the success of his popular series, The Hardy Boys, but he had a new idea. He thought it high time to create a spunky female teen detective with blond hair, blue eyes, and a spiffy blue roadster. He wrote a one page plot outline with the pen name of Carolyn Keene and hired a talented writer named Mildred A. Wirt to see if she could write a book based on his ideas. The manuscript was a hit and he hired her to write two more books, with Grossett and Dunlap being awarded printing rights. It is more than sad to note that Edward Stratemeyer died of pneumonia only twelve days after the three books were released on April 28, 1930.

After the overnight success of The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, and The Bungalow Mystery, Mildred went on to write the next four books in the series. Because of The Great Depression and a proposed cut in her salary, Mildred refused to write more of the books. Walter Karig was then hired to write the next three books #8-11. However, things changed and Mildred did return to write the next 19 books in the series. Out of the first 25 books, she authored 22 of them. She came back for one final book, #30 The Clue of the Velvet Mask, with her married name of Mildred Benson, thus writing 23 books in all.

Other writers of the books were George Waller, Jr., Margaret Scherf, Iris Vinton, Wilhelmina Rankin, Alma Sasse, Charles Strong, Priscilla Doll, and finally ending with Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, daughter of the founder of Stratemeyer Syndicate, who took over writing the series beginning with volume #35 and continuing until the series ended. It is also noteworthy that while Edward Stratemeyer wrote the plot outline for the first three books in the series, after his death, his daughters Harriet Adams and Edna Squier kept a very close eye on the series and wrote all but one of the plot outlines for the books.

For more information about "Carolyn Keene", you might enjoy reading, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak.

Poll results and new weekly poll

Thank you all for taking the time to vote in last week's poll. By an over-whelming majority, 15 voted that their favorite books are the yellow hardbacks! One person voted in favor of the paperback mysteries, while The Case Files and Girl Detective books didn't get any votes this time around.

I just posted a new poll for the week, which will end next Sunday evening. This one asks, "Other than Nancy, who is your favorite character in the original books?" Thanks so much for your votes!♥

Possible cover art for RAN

Her Interactive mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that they are still in the process of drafting the packaging copy for Ransom of the Seven Ships. I found this cover art on the Internet, so while this may not be what is ultimately chosen, I thought I would post it for those who haven't seen it. The colors and design are breathtaking!