Reading juvenile fiction when you're way past childhood

Diana Uichanco

 



Thanks to @nancy.drew.collector, who recently marked her fifth anniversary on Instagram, I was prompted to take snapshots of some of the books I'd acquired since my renewed interest in Nancy Drew mysteries kicked in early this year. 

I read the matte yellow revised edition as a child, and because I had the first 55 volumes in my collection (later sold to a nice family shortly before our move to a much smaller home), there was no reason for me to go out and purchase the same books all over again upon rediscovering the fascinating world of the literary detective. 

Part of the rediscovery was the new discovery of the existence of various formats in which the books came--I had no idea there were different kinds!

Another discovery: original text (OT) and revised text (RT). I sure would love to see how the author really wrote them... or at least the closest to how Carolyn Keene initially fashioned the mysteries, I remember thinking. All manuscripts undergo editing, but knowing that many of the books I had read as a child were the product of major rehash and that the original text was still within reach, I set out on a search of copies of the OTs.


Nancy, Bess and George on the matte yellow copies I pored over as a kid. The vintage Hardy Boys (top, left) belonged to my brothers.

As for the RTs, well, I decided that only inexpensive copies in formats aside from the matte yellow one would be considered--and only of selected volumes. After all, if I were to spend on acquiring the OT edition, why should I even purchase the RT version of the same mystery? There's only one reason I could justifiably make such a purchase: to appreciate the differences between the original and revised versions of a story that had undergone a major overhaul. And several of the mysteries did: volumes 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 17, and 18.

As expected, copies of the original edition are much more challenging to find, but the few that I have been able to acquire or to read online have been impressive. The language, the pace, the descriptive narration all make for a wonderful reading experience! I touched on this quite a bit here after having read the 1937 and 1970 editions of The Whispering Statue.  


Spinal column: Top to bottom, a sample of different formats like the tweed, lavender-spine library edition, a book club edition, 2015 Penguin Random House edition, Cameo book club edition, flashlight edition, and The Best of Nancy Drew Classic Collection 

I must say that in the process of buying carefully selected volumes, I ended up with more books than originally planned. It's pretty difficult to resist bundles at bargain prices! Also, in choosing 3-in-1 editions, the result was acquiring double copies of some mysteries (sales is not my thing, but selling a few of these Nancys will be happening sometime, if only to promote reading and to let kids enjoy or get acquainted with the adventures of the teen sleuth and her chums). 

As I write this, a sense of quiet exhilaration fills me. It's because I am anticipating the arrival of a deeply desired book, one which I did not think would ever come into my possession because in the Philippines, we don't normally come across these. Thank God @sell.phi.store decided to sell her copy of Applewood Books' The Secret of the Old Clock--and at a price that wouldn't warrant my breaking the bank! 

You may be wondering why in the world a grownup woman continues to read juvenile fiction like the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and obviously gets a thrill from it. This may offer something worth considering:


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