There is a series written for young readers called the Nancy Drew Notebooks that follows the detective at age 8. We cannot get enough of them! So far we have read every one at our library, with irresistible titles such as:
The Dollhouse Mystery
Alien in the Classroom
The Snowman Surprise
Not Nice on Ice
The Lost Locket
Dinosaur Alert!
The Soccer Shoe Clue
The Apple Bandit
The Chinese New Year Mystery
The Puppy Problem
The Kitten Caper
The Bunny-Hop Hoax
The Singing Suspects
The Secret Santa
Trouble at Camp Treehouse
The Hidden Treasures
The Black Velvet Mystery
Candy Is Dandy
The Ice Cream Scoop
Nancy has two cousins who appear in every book. George is a tomboy; Bess likes fashion and shopping and doesn't like to get dirty. Dorothy commented, "George likes to play soccer because she is sporty, but Bess likes to do fun stuff."
I was tucking Dorothy in bed and she kept coming up with things to tell me. "I'm playing Nancy Drew," she said. "My teddy bear is Bess. My Cinderella doll is George. This is my blue notebook and I'm writing clues in it." "Yes, yes," I'm saying as I scoot towards the door. "And Mama!" she calls out. "Yes?" I ask. "I'm Nancy Drew."
In Dinosaur Alert, the lunch lady, a former student at Nancy's elementary school, came dressed as the school's former mascot for a reunion. She told the story that thirty years prior she had stamped the dinosaur's footprint in wet cement and was scolded and not allowed to be the mascot anymore. Dorothy asked, "So at the reunion, was the lady who said she cannot be the dinosaur not there anymore?"