Book Review: Nancy Drew #18

Preface

January 24 was National Readathon Day. We weren't at an event, but we chose our books, read, and rotated until we each read all five books. Two were much longer so it's taken some time.

During our reading time we were introduced to and decided to join the 53rd Kit Lit Blog Hop. (We didn't get to link up properly.) It's a real honor and we'll be adding this logo to our future book reviews. Click the link to find more participants.

Now on with the reviews!

The Mystery of the Moss Covered Mansion

by Carolyn Keene

Haley

Truly a classic - I love the original Nancy Drew mysteries. There aren't a lot of gadgets or technology to rely on, but Nancy and her friends get the job done. Boring? Absolutely not! Chases by car and wild animals, fires, surly caretakers...that's just the tip of the action iceberg when Nancy is on the case. A great read; the story flows well and we get to learn new words. 

Kaya'aton'my

Nancy rocks! The way she and her friends are willing to use their skills to help someone in trouble is really cool. The best part is she usually ends up helping more than one person. Her mysteries always have more than one level to them.

Kirsten

This was a fun mystery to read. The way Nancy gathers clues is very interesting. She is very careful not to accuse someone without fully thinking out the situation. She doesn't do it all herself either; she shares her ideas and theories with her "team." I love that everyone can contribute to solving a case. 

Lanie

I never knew there were so many types of oranges. Nancy was able to track down clues and prove someone innocent with the help of a special type of orange. Too bad the thugs weren't as smart. Way to go, Nancy!

Melody

Nancy Drew is my hero! She is always thinking, polite, and considerate. In this story Nancy and her friends stop a plan to sabotage a rocket launch, but they also help a lot of mistreated animals too. It's neat to see how she collects information without some of the tools we rely on today. I liked how this story was written and have created a short list of words that I looked up to understand what was happening.

Xyra's Review

Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion by Carolyn Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Four and a half stars.

For all intents and purposes this is an amazing story - well written and plotted. Some of the details in this one are definitely dated; however, the overall theme of homegrown terrorism is not. I'd actually like to get my hands on the original 1941 release to see what has changed (since NASA was not created until after WWII). I'm thinking the 1969 rewrite replaced themes and activities more closely related to WWII.

I love that you don't have to read the Nancy Drew mysteries in order. Each adventure is a complete story unto itself. There might be a tiny reference to a previous adventure, but nothing is heavily based on them so the reader is not confused. This is #18 and before this I read #41. Not an issue at all.

In this installment Nancy and her friends travel to Florida and Cape Canaveral to help figure out how exploding oranges got into the NASA compound. While on an unrelated excursion the group happens upon the moss-covered mansion. In the end...nope not giving any spoilers.

Nancy, as always, is courageous and thoughtful. She puts her deductive and intuitive powers to work helping free the innocent and imprison the sinister and nefarious.

The vocabulary in this book is wonderful! Furtive, nefarious, alight, and many more lovely words sew this story together. Great for young readers...get your dictionaries ready (book or on smartphone/tablet)...build your language base.


Do you like mystery books?

Best wishes,

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