The Message in the Hollow Oak (Nancy Drew, Book 12) (original 1935; edição 1999)

This is a decent premise, but the execution feels a bit off, as if all we wanted out of a mystery book were kidnappings and threatening letters. ( )

Fine condition

I absolutely loved Nancy Drew growing up. This was a series I latched on to for dear life and never let go. Anytime my mom and I would go to antique stores, we'd peruse the Nancy Drews and add them to the collection (oftentimes my mom had to make deals with me on how many I could buy). So, while I don't remember the exact details of each and every one, the entire series was amazing and really fed my love for reading (especially novels full of suspense and mystery). Thank you, Carolyn Keene, for giving us an intelligent female character to fall in love with in Nancy Drew! ( )

12 A group of professional detectives challenge Nancy to tackle a mystery that they have failed to solve: find an invaluable message hidden by a missionary centuries ago in a hollow oak tree in Illinois. While searching the woods for the ancient tree, Nancy and her friends live with a group of young archaeologists who are excavating prehistoric Indian burial mounds on a nearby farm. A shadowy enemy stalks Nancy and harasses everyone at the dig. The young investigator pursues her dangerous adversary to an outlaws’ cave, and is threatened when she discovers an unusual treasure. ( )

My copy is the Applewood Books facsimile edition of the 1935 book, with the original text. From other reviewers' remarks, it sounds like the revised edition is a poor effort. As a reader of Nancy in the 1950s, with a set of the originals published in the 1930s-40s, I despised Harriet Stratemeyer's revisions even as a 10-year old!

In this older edition, Nancy travels to Canada, her only adventure there, after she wins a radio contest which awards her an interest in a gold claim somewhere in the Northwest. Bess & George accompany her, of course, and for a wonder, squeamish, girly Bess doesn't fall apart at having to ride a horse in the woods and rough it in a tent. There is a lot of chasing around by the bad guys who are trying to drive Nancy away from her claim, and Nancy also helps to re-unite two star-crossed lovers. A joy for me, a Canadian kid, to have my girl sleuth heroine here in Canada! ( )