Mine Were Nancy Drew

It's Spring Break chez Annie, and we didn't go to some warmer clime or some snow-covered mountain.  We pretty much kicked it around the house with friends.  We went to the Zoo on what turned out to be the one nice-outside day of the week.  I had to work for a few hours two of the days.  Each kid had a little bit of homework, but not much.  Really?  Just relaxing.  Both kids seemed to need a little recharging after a hard, dark winter.  So I let them.  Recharge that is. 

Daughter is fixated on the Jonas Brothers.  For the uninitiated, they are one of the current Disney stable boy bands.  She collects magazine pictures of them and tapes them to various surfaces in her bedroom.  She visited various bookstores and magazine outlets this week and added some to her collection.  She also did some housework to earn more money to buy magazines.  We call her Cinderella. 

But it's Dear Son who had a magical week.  I bet you'll remember your first too. 

See, he's smitten. 

With a series of books that is.   The books are the Alex Rider series by Brit Anthony Horowitz.  They are about a 14 year-old kid who's parents have (of course) been killed and somehow he's ended up an unlikely and relatively uncooperative but super capable way smarter than the adults around him  spy for MI6.  One of our cousins sent Son the books for Christmas and he finally had the time to really attack them this week.  He read the first two over the course of a few months as he was pretty busy with school and basketball.  But I believe he's read 4 of them this week.  And is into book 7 -- the current last of the series -- as of last night.  Yesterday?  A kind of cold and dreary day here?  He read an entire 200 and some odd page book. 

I don't know about you, but that makes me very nostalgic.  I remember working my way through all of the Little House books.  And when I found out that a neighbor had all of the Nancy Drew books and that I could borrow any of them?  I read 'em all one summer.  I remember the sheer joy of practically skimming the books, just to see what would happen, knowing I had several more piled up and waiting.  And the bitter sweet almost regret at picking up the last book and savoring it.  Don't you?  I also read all of the Stallion books by Walter Farley, and some series by Victoria Holt but I can't remember it or find it online.  I know there are more, but I can't think of them.   

What were your love series?  Maybe yours will jog my memory? 

Comments

[Jennifer]

I read the Little House and Nancy Drew books too. I remember reading a lot of Beverly Cleary books, and The Hardy Boy Mysteries. I had friends that read the Sweet Valley High series, but I didn't get sucked in as much. I remember when I was a little older reading a lot of Piers Anthony, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury. I loved and still carry an affection for Sci Fi.

[Rachel]

Ramona Quimby, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and Little House on the Prairie off the top of my head. Then I found a list of JV series and sequels and have spent the whole morning reminiscing about books I read as a youngling. Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, the Harriet books.... In school our class convinced three different teachers to read aloud the Narnia series three times. As an adult I have really enjoyed two series that are technically YA, Harry Potter and the Golden Compass books. This was fun. :)

[Bridgett]

Little House, of course. The L. Frank Baum Oz series--all of them one summer for the library summer reading thing. I also just adored the Bagthorpe family saga, set in England, humorous little novels by Helen Cresswell. Sydney Taylor's All of a Kind Family series made me want to have more siblings. And be Jewish. Then it was the Tolkien books, and that was the end of jfic for a long time (I've gone back as an adult and enjoyed quite a bit).

[Susan]

Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie series. I remember being captivated by the Chronicles of Narnia but I don't recall whether I ever finished the series.

FYI, the JoBros are going on tour this summer. We're considering a media blackout at our house so no one has to take DD to the concert. . . doubtful it will work!

[LisaS]

It's magical to watch them fall into books like that ....

and yes, to all of the above: Nancy Drew, Walter Farley, the Chronicles of Narnia entranced me from the time I was 8 forward--I read them every year; All of a Kind Family was this Southerner's introduction to Judaism; and what about Misty of Chincoteague and Stormy, her foal?

and then the teen years: Tolkien, Asimov, Clarke (RIP), Bradbury. and Stephen King and Danielle Steele. No, I have not always been cool.

[Lucia]

Little House, Anne of Green Gables, the Betty Cavanna books (each one has different characters, but they are all about the travails of growing up female), Nancy Drew and Hardy boys (although even back then they seemed to me pretty unrealistic). I read some of the Cleary books and have read some more as an adult. Oh, and I read virtually everything by Agatha Christie starting at age 9 or thereabouts. Some of it went flying over my head (many of her books feature unknown illegitimate children), and speaking of unrealistic, but I loved watching Hercule Poirot in action.

[Dee fm KS]

I remember reading the boxcar children original book, then discovered more and didn't like them as well at the time. As an adult, I have gone back and read several of them and don't know what I disliked about them. Since I am 51, I discovered little house books with my kids and loved. I even bought a few for me and some of the tapes and dvds out.

[Dawn]

I LOVED reading when I was a kid, and so enjoyed my kids' love of reading. I read Nancy Drew, Little House books, the Black Stallion books, Phyllis Whitney mysteries, Lloyd Alexander, Tolkien, A Wrinkle in Time, and so many more.

[Jody]

I was all over the Sweet Valley High books - it was like a soap opera luved it! I was also into anything by Judy Bloom

[Kelly]

It sounds like you all had a nice relaxing spring break. My kids don't have theirs for two more weeks hopefully the weather will be warmer then.

It's great that your son likes to read. I too remember all the summers spent reading. I was the youngest of four my brother's and sister were a lot older than me which meant they had control of the T.V. so I would lock myself in my room and read for hours on end. I still but since I found knitting it hasn't been as much.

[PICAdrienne]

Little House, All of a Kind Family, Chronicles of Narnia, all of the OZ books, The Wrinkle in Time series, Nancy Drew, The Dana Girls, The Bobbsey Twins, and from another time, raiding Grandma's attic, the Five Little Peppers.

There was also a series of books, different authors, but biographys of different people in their young years. I read about Martha Washington, and Clara Barton, and Julia Ward Howe and Lotta Crabtree.