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[CCBC-Net] Nancy Drew and her creators
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From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:49:03 -0500
On Nov 28, 2005, at 2:53 PM, Ryan, Pat wrote:
> I don't think we started 'promoting' series until the popularity of
> series started to explode a few years ago with so many people copying
> the success of R. L. Stine and J. K. Rowling.
>
>
It makes me quiver a little to hear Stine and Rowling mentioned in the same sentence, because I believe they are worlds apart. The Harry Potter books are not "formula" series in any way. Characters grow and change, themes build and expand, landscape is fully realized, and the writing style, in my humble opinion, is vibrant and evocative. These are the reasons so many adults as well as young readers respond to Rowling's books.
Stine has certainly enjoyed enormous popularity, but for very different reasons. A formula series is just that - books written to a formula. And once set up as a formula, the books can be plotted in outline and given to anyone to flesh out, as is often the case with formula series that run to dozens, even hundreds of titles. This is a very different process from a fantasy series, carefully developed by a writer of the caliber of Rowling, Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, C. S. Lewis, and all the many fine writers of fantasy. It's also different from the books in a realistic fiction series such as Cleary's Ramona books, or my recent fav's - Hilary McKay's Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, and Permanent Rose. These are books you need to read in order as the characters grow and develop. In many formula series, each title is interchangeable, and the delight comes from knowing what to expect even though the villains are different and the plot varies slightly from book to book.
It is true, however, that it's only in recent years that libraries started "promoting" formula series. When I was growing up, and a complete Nancy Drew addict, one of my rites of passage was to be allowed to walk alone to our neighborhood library. When I finally screwed up my 10 year old's courage to approach the librarian and ask her where her Nancy Drew books were, she told me (in a voice I remember dripping with icicles) - "Oh, we don't carry Nancy Drew books" - as if that were the most disgusting thing she could think of. I never asked another librarian for a reading suggestion, until I became one - sad tale, but true.
Luckily I had relatives who were happy enough to spend the 50 cents a copy to give me Nancy Drew's for holiday and birthday presents. And one blessed grandmother who found a newspaper article for me that said the identity of the author Carolyn Keene was as much of a mystery as any that Nancy ever solved. Fascinating!! I loved wondering about that . . . could I track her down and solve the mystery myself?? Well, of course, I never did - but it added to the enjoyment just thinking about it.
This fall I am avidly reading the real story behind the story: Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her - written by Melanie Rehak, published by Harcourt. Of course we all know by now the story of the Stratemeyer Syndicate - the brains and business acumen behind the development of the early series books. In Rehak's book we get a double biography of Harriet Stratemeyer, who kept the formulas and the business going after her father died in 1930, and Mildred Wirt Benson, a trailblazing journalist who did most of the writing for Nancy Drew. These two were pioneer feminists in an early 20th century in which precious few women were business owners or journalists, let alone college graduates. The Nancy Drew books are certainly not deathless prose, and I would never put them in a category with the great authors I later came to love, but they did nevertheless start me on a road to lifelong reading. And many feminist leaders over the years have publicly credited Nancy with giving them a sense of what women can accomplish. Sometimes there is more to a series than the formula.
Connie Rockman
Received on Mon 28 Nov 2005 02:49:03 PM CST
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:49:03 -0500
On Nov 28, 2005, at 2:53 PM, Ryan, Pat wrote:
> I don't think we started 'promoting' series until the popularity of
> series started to explode a few years ago with so many people copying
> the success of R. L. Stine and J. K. Rowling.
>
>
It makes me quiver a little to hear Stine and Rowling mentioned in the same sentence, because I believe they are worlds apart. The Harry Potter books are not "formula" series in any way. Characters grow and change, themes build and expand, landscape is fully realized, and the writing style, in my humble opinion, is vibrant and evocative. These are the reasons so many adults as well as young readers respond to Rowling's books.
Stine has certainly enjoyed enormous popularity, but for very different reasons. A formula series is just that - books written to a formula. And once set up as a formula, the books can be plotted in outline and given to anyone to flesh out, as is often the case with formula series that run to dozens, even hundreds of titles. This is a very different process from a fantasy series, carefully developed by a writer of the caliber of Rowling, Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, C. S. Lewis, and all the many fine writers of fantasy. It's also different from the books in a realistic fiction series such as Cleary's Ramona books, or my recent fav's - Hilary McKay's Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, and Permanent Rose. These are books you need to read in order as the characters grow and develop. In many formula series, each title is interchangeable, and the delight comes from knowing what to expect even though the villains are different and the plot varies slightly from book to book.
It is true, however, that it's only in recent years that libraries started "promoting" formula series. When I was growing up, and a complete Nancy Drew addict, one of my rites of passage was to be allowed to walk alone to our neighborhood library. When I finally screwed up my 10 year old's courage to approach the librarian and ask her where her Nancy Drew books were, she told me (in a voice I remember dripping with icicles) - "Oh, we don't carry Nancy Drew books" - as if that were the most disgusting thing she could think of. I never asked another librarian for a reading suggestion, until I became one - sad tale, but true.
Luckily I had relatives who were happy enough to spend the 50 cents a copy to give me Nancy Drew's for holiday and birthday presents. And one blessed grandmother who found a newspaper article for me that said the identity of the author Carolyn Keene was as much of a mystery as any that Nancy ever solved. Fascinating!! I loved wondering about that . . . could I track her down and solve the mystery myself?? Well, of course, I never did - but it added to the enjoyment just thinking about it.
This fall I am avidly reading the real story behind the story: Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her - written by Melanie Rehak, published by Harcourt. Of course we all know by now the story of the Stratemeyer Syndicate - the brains and business acumen behind the development of the early series books. In Rehak's book we get a double biography of Harriet Stratemeyer, who kept the formulas and the business going after her father died in 1930, and Mildred Wirt Benson, a trailblazing journalist who did most of the writing for Nancy Drew. These two were pioneer feminists in an early 20th century in which precious few women were business owners or journalists, let alone college graduates. The Nancy Drew books are certainly not deathless prose, and I would never put them in a category with the great authors I later came to love, but they did nevertheless start me on a road to lifelong reading. And many feminist leaders over the years have publicly credited Nancy with giving them a sense of what women can accomplish. Sometimes there is more to a series than the formula.
Connie Rockman
Received on Mon 28 Nov 2005 02:49:03 PM CST
