Why I Love Nancy Drew

I've always been a bit of a Nancy Drew fan.

And this week I came across a couple dozen old Nancy Drew books lining my bookshelves...or rather my sister's. Both of us went through a crazed Nancy Drew Phase. I read everything the library had. She bought all the books she could afford.

For the most part, I'm not a mystery person. And let's face it, Nancy is written in a pretty cliche style. But every now and then...I don't know if its nostalgia or if there's really something in these stories...I just get a hankering to reread them.

So I thought it'd be fun to make a list of the reasons why Nancy Drew continues to be so popular after all these years.

So the reasons I've always loved Nancy:

1. Awesome book covers. As an artist and an indie author who does her own covers, I must point out that the artwork on those hardbound yellow books is pretty dang awesome!


2. She gets to travel all over the place. I mean, come on!


3. cool bits of history, facts, and info learned while reading a story.


4. Despite not being the best "quality" writing, their easy to read. The plot is intriquing enough that you don't mind too much. ;)


5. Don't forget Ned Nickerson: I mean she had an (apparently) good-looking boyfriend, but he was not the clingy type...he didn't hesitate to protect Nancy, but he obviously admired her greatly and never "held her back" in any way. Though to be honest I alway found him a bit dull. ;) And the few times they "smile romantically" at each other and someone teases them and Nancy "blushes." Yeah. I admit it. I laugh.


6. Then there's George and Bess! Let's be honest. Those two are the epitome of awesome best friends. And considering how hard it can be for a threesome to keep everyone feeling included, I think these three do a great job at being supportive caring friends.


7. Mystery. Duh.


8. The settings themselves.


9. How smart and clever Nancy is. Okay, so most of the plots are simplistic in retrospective and it looks like a three-year old could figure them out...and half the time the wonder isn't that Nancy figured it out...its that no one else noticed either. But so what if Nancy lives in a world of simpletons. When we read these books at the age of 12 or 13 they made us feel like WE were Nancy and we were the smart, clever, beautiful, capable sleuth...


10. And who doesn't want to grow up to be brilliant sleuth, huh? Answer me that.


11. And the fact that Nancy is beautiful and capable...when your 12 years old and you read about the heroine roaming all over the seven continents solving mysteries...how can you not be impressed?


12. She has the awesome dad ever. That's for sure.


13. Oh, and the housekeeper. Mrs. Gruen is pretty lovable too. In fact all the adults seemed pretty laid-back and perfectly okay with their young daughters running around looking for adventure and jumping headfirst into danger....


14. She's eighteen (sixteen in the original stories!) but apparently has no school or college connections tying her down. She has all the freedom anyone could wish for!


15. And the best reason? She was never a damsel in distress. If some villain tied her up and locked her in the closet, she didn't just sit there and wait for Ned to come rescue her. Oh no. She always figured out a way to free herself. Now that's what I call a role model for young girls! ;)

So what do you think?

Comment below on your favorite Nancy Drew read (or Hardy Boys if you read those instead!), and why you like it!

Divine Storytelling

So, a couple weeks ago, I noticed something really cool, while reading the Bible.

And yes, I've read this passage many times. And I've probably even noticed and pondered the whole idea before. But it never really jumped out at me like this. It was very inspiring.

I was sitting in church, reading along to the sermon text, on my phone. Only the pastor was reading from the KJV and I was looking at the Message Bible. This is how it translates, Matthew 13:11-14.

He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it."

Did you see it? Did you see it?!

Somehow, replacing the word "parable" with the word "story" just got me all kinds of excited...

Because of course, I'm a storyteller too. Just like Jesus!

Come on, you know that's an awesome thing.

But the thing that I really loved about this?

Jesus, explaining why He tells people stories. Not just to entertain, obviously (though he appears to thoroughly enjoy a well told yarn, just as much as the rest of us). But he points out to them the power of Storytelling.

To paraphrase, he's basically saying, "I can preach at people till I'm blue in the face, and it goes in one ear and out the other. But tell, a story and seeds of truth will be planted that, if not now, someday will bloom and they shall understand."

That's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

This whole thing about Jesus being a Storyteller reminds me of J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien talked constantly of something he called "sub-creation." Which is, that humans have the inborn desire to make and create things, because they were made in the image of God. And he is the Greatest of Creators. He loves to make things (Universes out of nothing, saints out of sinners, and cool stuff like that). And so of course, we feel the same desire to create.

So if you are a creator of any sort, if you are a storyteller of any kind....

Don't try to hide it. Don't be ashamed. Don't feel like, "There's got to be something more important I should be doing."

I think its pretty obvious that what we are doing for this world is pretty important. Or else, the Greatest Creator and Storyteller of all wouldn't have given us the desire to create too.

And on that note, I'm think I'll go create something today!