These revisions offer one possible answer to the question of how to tackle outdated and harmful aspects of literature: try, try again. Since that first transformation the books have gone through a dozen iterations. River Heights became less overtly racist but also more white. Nancy aged to 18, drove a blue convertible, gained a surrogate mother in the form of her housekeeper, Hannah, and became, arguably, more docile. Thirty years after Nancy solved her first mystery, the original books were revised and shortened. However, the Nancy we know today is not the same Nancy readers first fell in love with. When the first books were released in 1930, Nancy was an instant hit to date, more than 80 million copies of her adventures have sold. Before Buffy slayed her first vampire, before Wonder Woman lassoed the truth out of bad guys, before Leia led the Rebel Alliance, sixteen-year-old Nancy Drew sped her blue roadster all over River Heights catching criminals, getting dirty, and inspiring young girls to step outside of gender expectations. Women of many generations could claim a similar love of the girl detective. To me, it was the perfect homage: like Nancy, my car was pretty, capable, and ready for adventure. I named my first car, a mint green Toyota Prius, after my first role model, Nancy Drew. in the library, 75 School St.Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work. Rotuna’s “Nancy Drew: The History Behind the Mystery” will be at 5:30 p.m. “And people from age 8 to age 80 come out to the talks.” “It’s amazing seeing generations come together, making special memories with people who inherited their mother’s books or a friend’s collection,” she said. Rotuna said she loves seeing grandmothers bonding with their grandchildren over the books. They’ve done series targeted toward younger kids - and new ones are still being published today.” “They started a series where Nancy Drew went to college. “After the original hardbacks, they started issuing paperbacks that went up into the hundreds,” she said. The 1955 Nancy Drew mystery “The Witch Tree Symbol” takes place in Lancaster County.Īfter attending her first Drew convention, Rotuna began putting together the segments that make up the bulk of her presentations today.Īnd while the original Nancy Drew series has 56 hardback books, Rotuna has collected more than 1,000 over the years, ranging from special library editions to foreign editions and alternate-cover versions. “They’re done by the Nancy Drew Sleuths group, and they’re held in locations where either her books are based or in places related to the authors.” “Right after she mentioned it, we found that there was one coming to Lancaster, and we went,” Rotuna said. When a co-worker found out Rotuna collected Drew books, she asked whether Rotuna had heard about the Nancy Drew conventions. “She was independent, she solved puzzles and, most importantly, she helped the people in her stories.” Rotuna, 52, of Monroeville has been extolling her fictional heroine’s virtues for the past 17 years with a presentation on Nancy Drew, which she will give Thursday, Feb. Tara Rotuna has been solving mysteries alongside Nancy Drew since she was 8 years old.Īlong the way, she solved some other mysteries, like the truth behind Nancy Drew author Carolyn Keene, and she started collecting Drew books and began attending themed conventions across the country.
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