What I Learned from Nancy Drew, Part 2
Beth Fantaskey
Read by Erin Moon
I just listened to a new audiobook by an author who must have read as many Nancy Drew books as I have: Beth Fantaskey. In her new book, Buzz Kill, Millie Ostermeyer is a non-conformist, full of spunk and determination. A reporter for the high school paper, whose editor is obnoxiously superior, Millie is investigating a story when she discovers a body. Like a modern day Nancy Drew, she is on the case. But this is much more than a well done mystery whose Nancy Drew tie-ins really work. When Millie and Chase, an aloof new boy, team up to solve the mystery, they slowly begin to deal with difficult life problems of their own.
Millie’s mother had read her Nancy Drew books as she was dying from cancer and that makes Nancy special to Millie. When Millie asks herself, “WWNDD?” (What would Nancy Drew Do?), mud- covered Millie realizes Nancy would never be anything but perfect, which Millie would never be. Millie compares her life with her widowed father to Nancy’s relationship with her widowed father, but her public librarian mentions Nancy’s reaction to her father’s dating in the Mystery of the Glowing Eye, where Nancy’s reactions are not so perfect.
As a public librarian, I especially enjoyed her devotion to her public library, and "her librarian." She's right—everyone needs their own librarian.
Lynn Piper
Five Points West Library
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