''Nancy Drew on Campus'' is a series of twenty-five books published as a young adult spin-off from the long-running
Nancy Drew mystery series. The series was published between 1995 and 1998 by
Simon & Schuster's Young Adult imprint
Simon Pulse and followed Nancy and her friends as they attended college and dealt with issues such as
date rape and
drug usage.
''Nancy Drew on Campus'' utilized reader interaction, most notably in the first two books where they were asked to call a
1-800 number
A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing pref ...
to decide whether Nancy and her boyfriend Ned were to break up or stay together. Nancy Drew ends her relationship to Ned Nickerson in the second book in the series, supposedly based on reader feedback to the telephone poll in the previous book.
This series focused more on romance and problems facing teens than on mysteries. A large group of new characters was introduced and became the focus of story-lines during the run of the series. Nancy Drew works as a reporter for the school newspaper and becomes involved in minor mysteries, often the sub-plot or tertiary plot of the book. The larger secondary cast takes center stage as they deal with drugs, potential pregnancy, date rape, and other incidents that are the staples of the genre.
The series was cancelled in 1997, when Simon & Schuster decided to cancel all Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys spin-offs.
Synopsis
The series followed
Nancy and her friends
George and Bess as they attend the fictional Wilder University. Nancy is attending in order to receive a degree in
journalism, much to the chagrin of her longtime boyfriend
Ned Nickerson, who wants her to attend
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
with him instead. Despite initial attempts to make their relationship work, the two break up in the second book ''On Her Own'' after Nancy decides that Ned is too controlling.
List of books in the series
# ''New Lives, New Loves''
# ''On Her Own''
# ''Don't Look Back''
# ''Tell Me the Truth''
# ''Secret Rules''
# ''It's Your Move''
# ''False Friends''
# ''Getting Closer''
# ''Broken Promises''
# ''Party Weekend''
# ''In the Name of Love''
# ''Just the Two of Us''
# ''Campus Exposures''
# ''Hard to Get''
# ''Loving and Losing''
# ''Going Home''
# ''New Beginnings''
# ''Keeping Secrets''
# ''Love On-Line''
# ''Jealous Feelings''
# ''Love and Betrayal''
# ''In and Out of Love''
# ''Otherwise Engaged''
# ''In the Spotlight''
# ''Snowbound''
Reception
Reception to the series was mixed, with some critics viewing the inclusion of adult themes such as date rape "unsuccessful".
In her book ''Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths'', Carolyn Carpan commented that the series was "more soap opera romance than mystery" and that Nancy "comes across as dumb, missing easy clues she wouldn't have missed in previous series". The series was also criticized for focusing more on romance than on grades or studying, with one critic stating that the series resembled collegiate academic studying in the 1950s, where "women were more interested in pursuing ... the "MRS" degree."
References
{{Nancy Drew
Young adult novel series
Novels about rape