Having just read the article about graphic novel versions of Nancy Drew, I was curious to reread one of the original versions. In some ways, it reads rather dated. Some of the prose is pretty stilted. For example, when the girls' boyfriends arrive with a man in tow for Aunt Eloise, he is introduced as "Miss Drew, I'd like to present my uncle, Professor Matthew Bronson, B.S., M.A., PhD. He's going to be teaching chemistry at Emerson this fall" (p.99). In addition, there is a lot of detail regarding making meals and what they eat. The characters also face real dangers---more than one is hit on the head and knocked out. One is bitten by a poisonous bug; another comes across a burglary in progress; another fights off a captor. However, the prose keeps the storyline from being too scary; I kept thinking that a current version of the story would not have people walking into the woods at night over and over to find criminals. It just seems way too dangerous for the audience to be believable.