Sunday, February 21, 2010

Girl Detective #40 Green with Envy


This is the newest release in the Girl Detective series and is the second of three stories in the "EcoMystery" Trilogy. I really like the setting of this trilogy - in Costa Rica at a (supposedly) eco-friendly resort called Casa Verde. Although the writers make fun of over the top fanatic ecowarriors, there is a lot of information about green living provided. And there's lots of descriptions of wildlife to enjoy.

In one scene (spoiler alert), Nancy finds herself in swamp water, surrounded by several crocodiles. Luckily a quick thinking individual throws out some meat to distract the crocs - our chum Nancy is saved by chum!

One complaint I have is that the cover of the book has no relation to the story, other than the fact that it might be set in a tropical rain forest. There are no suspension bridges in this story. And there isn't any rock climbing in the first story of the trilogy either, which is what is featured on that book's cover.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Girl Detective #29 The Stolen Bones


Nancy, Bess and George volunteer at a paleontology dig in this story. One thing I learned is that fossilized dung is called coprolite - doesn't that sounds nicer than dung? Also, Nancy manages to locate some prehistoric claw marks in a dried riverbed which are museum quality. She just has a knack for making discoveries! This book is unusual in that most of the characters are introduced by their first names only, and we never do find out their full names.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

January statistics


The official tally for the month of January is 32 Nancys read! And only 3 of them were ones intended for the 3rd grade set. Mostly I read titles from the Nancy Drew Files series, but I did get to a number of Girl Detective stories, a classic 56 title and even one Graphic Novel. My favorite of the month was Girl Detective #12 Stop the Clock - I am working on an article for The Sleuth fanzine describing some of the homages that are paid to The Secret of the Old Clock in this story, which was released during the year of the 75th anniversary of Nancy Drew.

I am slowing down to a rate of less than one Nancy per day for the rest of the year (had to go back to work, blah). But I have been enjoying the process of going through the unread mysteries, so I will continue to blog from time to time about my reading adventures.