God, I was addicted to this as a kid. And read the books. Great to see those weird titles again!

Can't think how I missed this one, but for some inexplicable reason I didn't read much Nancy Drew. Maybe they didn't have many copies in my local library or something (-: (I do remember a probably little known outside america series called The Bobbsey Twins, which featured not one, but two sets of investigator twins. As a twin I always felt I was underepresented in literature so loved this as well as the twins in Malcolm Saville).

My first freelance job was repackaging Nancy Drew, ooh 11 years ago now. They still stood up. I loved them and reckon my kids would still love them now, with the right cover. Good stories never go away, not really. And clever publishers should be able to reinvent the wheel. Maybe more difficult to update on tv though.

Secret lair doesn't begin to sum up the awesomeness of their junkyard base! They had their own telephone!

MediumRob replied to nicki richards's comment:

"[Rob, I'm obviously insane since I disagree with you, but…] nancy drew has not faded into history as your article says,if you look on amazon you will see that there are quite a few new books due out and they are publishing new ones all the time.plus there are graphic novel series about both nancy drew and the hardy boys as well and a new novel is published every three months.i think the characters could be revived on tv if the programme was actually based on the original mysteries like the 1980s series was."

I think what I actually said was "fading somewhat" into history. That would be continuous present not past tense. I'm aware both Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys haven't disappeared altogether - in fact I listed some of the updates above - but they've not got as firm a grip on the book-reading nation's children as they once did, and I doubt as many kids would know about them now as back in the 80s.

MediumRob replied to nicki richards's comment:

No problem. Would that everyone were still reading the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/The Three Investigators. I used to read the Secret Seven as well, but oddly, never the Famous Five. I wonder why?

I'd actually disagree that children's books aren't as good as they used to be. True there hasn't been a modern equivalent of the Famous Five etc (though Antony Horowitz has made a pretty good stab at it with The Diamond Brothers which my kids love) but there's plenty for today's kids to get their teeth into. Aside from the obvious: Harry Potter, Jacqueline Wilson, and Antony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, you've got Rainbow Fairies/Oliver Moon series for younger readers for 5-7s, The Roman Mysteries, Jeremy Strong, Michael Morpurgo (Kensuke's Kingdom, Private Peaceful to name but two my kids have loved), Karen Mcombie's Ally's Worlds series for 8-11s, Darren Shan, Philip Reeve, Phillip Pullman, Louise Renison, Cathy Walker etc etc for teens. AND they can still get most of the classics: Famous Five, Secret Seven (not Malcolm Saville so much, they haven't worn very well), Roald Dahl, Narnia...

Not everything translates afresh for a modern audience. When I was at Scholastic we reissued some Malcolm Saville but they bombed. I loved the Lone Pine Adventures as a kid, but they are quite heavy going for a modern audience. My kids have struggled with them but not the Famous Five. The other problem you have symptomatic to everything written in the 30s is some of the attitudes really grate to a modern audience. I am mainly in favour of not rewriting/remodernising unless absolutely necessary, but Malcolm Saville's books certainly have some dodgy references to gypsies, and when I worked on some Just William reissues a few years ago, we had to drop a couple of stories because we just couldn't have presented them to a modern audience.

There is a company that specialises in reissuing children's classics as POD I think. Can't remember it's name but will try and find out. Trouble is the books are very pricey so market limited.

Yes that is interesting, Rob, and I think a fair assessment probably. My older two are into Georgia Nicolson as heroine at the moment and she spends most of her time angsting, but they also love Alex Rider, which suggests they quite enjoy more action less emotion (though Alex has a fair amount of baggage). There is a historical mystery series - The Lady Grace Mysteries which they also love, but I haven't read them so don't know how feisty she is. Interestingly they've all loved a non fiction series that Scholastic did called My Story featuring the lives of girls throughout different historical periods. Some of them have some fairly terrible things happen and the characters remain stoical and don't emote all over the place. So maybe we need more of that in girl's fiction. Hmm....Praps I should write that book!

I can hear gnashing of teeth from all the children's book designers I know (-: (Wonder what the collective noun for designers is? A Font of book designers perhaps?)

Again would have to disagree about the cover design - certainly for the girly books, they attract my lot. And you wouldn't believe the length of time people spend discussing covers (-: Admittedly nobody gets it right all the time, I've never been a big fan of the HP covers myself, but I do like the Northern Lights ones, particuarly The Subtle Knife. (but then again am biased, I was around when the original covers were designed). Cover designs usually reflect their times, so tho they may not appeal to you, they probably will appeal to your children.

Oh very good, Rob. Yes. That would work (-: To to be fair, most of the ones I knew did read everything (hence their ability to produce brilliant covers, as they actually understood what they were designing.) I think most designers I know would probably describe editors as an arrogance of editors...

It's not their ability to read, I question, merely their ability to spell and punctuate...
Yes have had this experience too. Actually word I need to describe eds is something along lines of A Luddite of Editors, because most of the ones I know (moi excepted as I started in production) haven't a clue how books are actually made and it used to drive all the designers I worked with mad (and me, when I worked in production. Costings? What are they?)

No, the gypsies are good characters throughout the Lone Pine books.More than that, you can judge characters' worth by their attitudes towards the gypsies. Good characters like them and the baddies don't."

Am sure that's generally true, but we republished some of them in the early 90s, and there was definitely one story where gypsies were referred to in appallingly derogatory terms. In general we tried to preserve the books as they were, as they are of their time and I don't think they need "improving" as such, but that was one reference we had to lose. Similarly when I edited some abridged versions of Just William for a younger audience, I didn't include a story where there were some dodgy references to gipsies, and an odd one where William meets a lunatic in the woods, which just seemed bizarre in the current climate, as well as containing a lot of non pc stuff about lunatics.

You do have to bear in mind that attitudes in the 30s were very different from today, but today's kids are so clued up to human rights issues you couldn't get away with anything too offensive. I wouldn't want to reissue stuff and make it incredibly bland, but equally I don't think you should put things out there which are going to cause offense and detract from the great storytelling of the writer.

Nacny drew is a story about a teenager girl who is a detective......The original story was slightly modified for Nancy Drew movie. The action takes place in nowadays and there are many modern devices and technologies that Nancy uses in her investigation. Really amazing movie........i watch nancy drew movie with my friends