[Harmless Teddy Bear]

In the 1960's the The Stratemeyer Syndicate had the books in the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and other series rewritten. They dropped the number of chapters from 25 to 20 because children wouldn't read such long books anymore.

It is interesting when you read the original and the rewrite and see how much even then schools were failing.

[Tax-chick]

I’m sure that would be interesting. I didn’t start reading Nancy Drew until the 1970s, and I don’t know how many of those were new versions vs. older ones still on library shelves or in garage sales.

[Fiji Hill]

In the 1960's the The Stratemeyer Syndicate had the books in the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and other series rewritten. They dropped the number of chapters from 25 to 20 because children wouldn't read such long books anymore.

It is interesting when you read the original and the rewrite and see how much even then schools were failing.

I recently read the Nancy Drew mystery The Hidden Staircase (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1930), which was a favorite of my mother's when she was growing up, and found it to be a well-written story that even grown-ups could appreciate. I started to read the revised version from the 1960's, but it was so dumbed down that it failed to hold my interest after I had read only a few pages.