Yeah, that was what got me started.

I was wondering- it seemed like too big of a coincidence!

The Five Little Peppers (And How They Grew)

The Five Little Peppers! Oh yes. I read a LOT of my mom's childhood books, including her Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew books, although I think I discovered Beany Malone at the library.

I adored The Dana Girls series of mysteris. I think they came out of the same book factory as Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. I really liked Hardy Boys, too. Nancy always annoyed me for some reason.

Was it Castle that had someone sarcastically call the amateur detective a Nancy Drew and said amateur said, "Wow, a detective who solved every case? Thanks!"

Yes, the Dana Girls also came out of the Stratemeyer Syndicate [link] I've been fascinated by Edward Stratemeyer, the Henry Ford of children's books, for years. The syndicate's books had many ghostwriters, but Stratemeyer wrote more than 1,300 of them, enough to make him one of the more prolific writers ever. I read once that his habit was to start a book on Monday and finish it on Friday.

Oh, man. If only.

Wow.

I need to find copies of the ones that were current when I was a kid. They kept updating them for the current generation of kids.

Be careful with your childhood-current copies, Connie. I did that with the 1940s and earlier era Nancy Drews my aunt sent me, the original blue cloth bindings with orange lettering and silhouette of Nancy on the spines. I was unable to keep those books, and later on, I collected, at not a trifling expense, several titles in antiques malls before I actually sat down to an indulgent afternoon of reminiscence, and was very quickly appalled.

I should have expected the casual racism, but the classism was something I had never even noticed as a child. I suppose I was vicariously thrilled that an adolescent Nancy customarily spoke in a dismissive and disrespecting manner to the adult housekeeper. But as an adult I was horribly disappointed, and my fond memories of the books were ruined.

I eventually turned the books over to a friend with an ebay store. I don't think I ever received any money for the sales, and I'm okay with that. It's one of the few occasions when I felt a book-burning might be justified.

I've got a 40s-era Dana Girls, and that stuff is in there. I need to check to see if the ones I read are 50s/60s. I'll see if I can find one to test read.