Around the World with Nancy Drew

Elusive Korean Nancy

2012-02-01T10:31:00.001-08:00

There in an entry in Worldcat.org for this book under the Carolyn Keene section, indicating that there is officially at least one Nancy Drew that was published in Korea. I was lucky to find a blurry image of the cover. The translation of the Korean title is "Secret Stairway" so it is probably The Hidden Staircase.

Russian bootlegs?

2012-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

I have found the text of several Nancys translated into Russian and posted online. Some of the sites are sponsored by libraries, so I guess this is some kind of Project Gutenberg for Russian girls needing suitable detective fiction! Not sure how Simon & Schuster feels about this.... Some of the sites have even gone to the trouble of cobbling together some fake Russian covers to accompany the text. Unfortunately it does not appear that these have ever been published with paper and bindings, but the images are kinda neat.

Little Korean girls using Nancy Drew to learn English

2011-10-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Wonder & Learn has released some of the Crew Clue titles as aids to teach English to Korean girls. There are workbook pages included with the story, and all new artwork (cover and internals). So far books #1-4 have been produced.

A whole new language to add to the lexicon!

2011-04-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

While at the annual Nancy Drew Sleuths convention I received an email from Austin Johnson, another series book enthusiast. He sent me a clue about the existence of some Nancy Drew books in Vietnamese. Further investigation led to the discovery of 2 Girl Detective titles which were translated into Vietnamese in 2009, plus the apparent existence of some earlier works from the classic series issued in the 1990s. The reason these had not been noticed by me previously is that the 1990s books used the French "Alice" name instead of Nancy Drew. This would sort of make sense since Vietnam was once part of the French colony Indochine.

I am attaching the image of one of the Girl Detective books - I have not been able to find an example of the older books as yet. I think I have found a source for the Vietnamese Girl Detective books as they continue to be in print. I'm so excited that I can now officially declare that Nancy Drew books have been translated into 28 languages!

Be A Detective - Thai style

2011-01-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this book cover online but have not been able to hold it in my own hands, so don't know a lot of details. It appears the be Danger on Ice from the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Be a Detective series. They have recycled the UK artwork for the cover rather than use the US image. I'm not sure exactly when it was printed - possibly back in the 1980/1990's when the originals were issued, or maybe it is a newer book.

Next title released in Japan

2010-09-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the cover of the next story from Tsogen of Japan - The Clue in the Diary. Guess that's Ned peering over Nancy's shoulder helping her decipher the Swedish in the diary. Glad that they are continuing to publish these - hope they are selling well.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2010-06-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across a foreign edition Nancy Drew reference in an unexpected place - in the best selling thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. At one point a journalist is researching the September 1966 disappearance of a teenage girl named Harriet Vanger and investigates her father's cabin. An excerpt from page 319 reads:

Of the books, about half were mystery paperbacks from Wahlström's Manhattan series: Mickey Spillane with titles like Kiss Me, Deadly with classic covers by Bertil Hegland. He found half a dozen Kitty books, some Famous Five nivels by Enid Blyton , and a Twin Mystery by Sivar Ahlrud...

While I was reading this, I smiled a little to myself at the reference to Bertil Hegland, who was the illustrator for the original Swedish translations of Nancy Drew, but my smile only got wider when I saw that Kitty was mentioned in the next sentence! By the way the name is simply thrown out, with no explanation of who Kitty is (i.e., doesn't need any extra information such as the name of the author, as in Enid Blyton) that leads me to believe that Kitty is pretty universally known in Sweden, similar to the way that Nancy Drew is a commonplace cultural reference in the US, even for people who have never read any of her mysteries.

To accompany this post I am uploading the cover of Kitty och nyckelmysteriet (The Clue of the Black Keys) which is the Swedish translation that was published in 1966, the year of Harriet Vanger's disappearance. Naturally the cover is one of Bertil Hegland's.

Does anyone speak Korean?

2010-05-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this may or may not be the Holy Grail of foreign edition Nancy Drews - a copy in Korean! From a library database, I had previously confirmed the existence of a single volume from the series that was translated into Korean, but I did not know what the book looked like.

I found this image online, and it certainly looks like it could be a translation of Crossword Cipher. In fact, the llama, parachuter and Andean poncho are all very reminiscent of the Armada (British) cover from the 1980s. Furthermore, in the British numbering system, Crossword Cipher is #5 and there is a "5" on this cover. What's cool about that is that maybe there were 4 (or more!) other titles translated into Korean.

So if anyone out there can translate the text on this cover and possibly confirm that this is indeed a Nancy Drew title, I would be so thrilled! Next hurdle - finding an actual copy for my collection!

How the French see Nancy

2010-04-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

The popular Her Interactive game The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is the only mystery that is available for Wii at this time. A French version has recently been released in this format, but they have elected to go with a different cover than the US version. Oddly enough, it features Nancy on the cover, despite the fact that one of the gimmicks that Her Interactive has consistently employed is that you never see Nancy in the games (because YOU as the player are Nancy Drew).

I am also uploading the cover of the new French HI game, Kidnapping Aux Bahamas (Ransom of Seven Ships).

Computer games released in Germany

2010-01-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

dtp Entertainment AG has released 2 titles from the Her Interactive library in German. #1 is Die Legende des Kristallschädels (Legend of the Crystal Skull) and #2 is Das Phantom von Venedig (Phantom of Venice).

French artist Albert Chazelle

2009-12-10T19:34:00.001-08:00

Albert Chazelle was the illustrator for the earliest Nancy Drew books published in France, where the character is called Alice Roy. A sketch made by this artist was recently made public.

Red Gate Farm in Japanese

2009-12-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas, the next title in the series (Red Gate Farm) will be issued by Tsogen of Japan. It seems like an overwhelming majority of the cover art (US and foreign) for Red Gate Farm features the white robe clad "cultists" - wish they would come up with another scene to depict!

Two new covers from Sweden

2009-12-02T14:25:00.001-08:00

Wahlstroms will be releasing two more Kitty books in March 2010. One is the next title in the Girl Detective series, and the other is a reprint featuring revised art from one of the Classic paperback stories.

Kidnappad! (Girl Detective #16 Dangerous Plays); artwork by Andreas Bennwik

Kitty och mysteriet med de stulna böckerna (#126 The Riddle in the Rare Book); artwork by Andreas Bennwik

Girl Detective books in Norway

2009-09-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

The Norwegian publisher has changed its name to Cappelen Damm and appears to only be continuing to publish the Girl Detctive titles (called Nye Frøken Detektiv). In other words, they are no longer republishing the original "Klassiker" titles.

Frøken Detektiv: ledetråd Hawaii (Girl Detective #13 Trade Wind Danger) published 2009, uses Andreas Bennwik artwork from the Wahlstroms (Sweden) edition

Frøken Detektiv: et sant mareritt (Girl Detective #14 Bad Times, Big Crimes) published 2009, uses Andreas Bennwik artwork from the Wahlstroms (Sweden) edition

The Next Girl Detective book in Swedish

2009-09-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Prinsen och målningen (Girl Detective #15 Framed) published by Wahlströms, September 2009. Original artwork by Andreas Bennwik.

Graphic novels in Finland

2009-07-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

The first three titles from the Girl Detective Graphic Novels series were released in Finnish in 2007 (shortly after their English counterparts were introduced). I just received copies in today's mail and was happy to add them to my collection.

The books are published by Egmont and duplicate the format of the US versions. They also repeated the "neiti etsivä" nickname started back in the 1950s when the first Nancy Drew books were translated into Finnish. Conveniently, it roughly translates to "miss" or "girl" detective. The only change is that the heroine is called Nancy in the graphic novels, rather than Paula, as she was previously known in Finland.

Graphic Novels released in Malay

2009-07-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

The first 4 titles from the Papercutz Graphic Novels series have been released in Malay by Pesta Buku Antarabangsa (translation: Carnival Book International). The release date appears to be April 2009. The series is called Komik Nancy Drew. They have reformatted the layout on the covers - I think I like this arrangement better than the US covers. It is more .... graphic!

This is the Malay edition of The Girl Who Wasn't There.

New to me Portuguese format

2009-05-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

This Portuguese book is not a new title currently in print, but it is a new format I had never encountered until now, so I wanted to share. I have some books by this publisher (Verbo) but I think they were from the 1990s and have totally different covers and internal illustrations, and feature a white spine. This book appears to be an earlier incarnation of "Os inqueritos de Nancy" published circa 1983. It has a yellow spine and recycles the Rudy Nappi cover but has original internal illustrations (uncredited). I like this one of the Tophams whining at the attorney's office.

The back cover indicates that at least the first 4 titles may have come in this format.

Girl Detective books from Sweden

2009-05-16T12:51:00.001-07:00

Ledtråd: Hawaii (Girl Detective #13 Trade Wind Danger) published by Wahlströms, September 2009. Original artwork by Andreas Bennwik.

En sann mardröm (Girl Detective #14 Bad Times, Big Crimes) published by Wahlströms, September 2008. Original artwork by Andreas Bennwik.

First Nancy Drew books in Arabic

2009-05-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

I don't have all the details on these newly located Arabic editions - I am awaiting delivery of my copies and will provide more information as it becomes available. They were probably originally published around the time of the release of the movie (circa 2007) and are still in print today. 4 or 5 titles from the Girl Detective series were released. This cover appears to be Lights, Camera.

Another release from Tsogen of Japan

2009-05-16T12:40:00.001-07:00

Predictably, the next one in the series is #5 The Secret of Shadow Ranch. The release date is May 2009.

Newest title released in Japan

2009-05-01T15:47:00.001-07:00

The fourth book released by Tsogen is Lilac Inn (naturally!). Although web sites indicate that it was published in November 2008, it was not available at Christmastime last year.

Nouveautés en Français

2009-05-01T15:35:00.001-07:00

Alice chez le grand coutourier (Classic Paperback #63 Twin Dilemma) reprinted by Hachette under their "Les Classiques de la Verte" series in November 2008. Original artwork by Marguerite Sauvage.

Nancy Drew Détective - Voyage dans le temps (Girl Detective #14 Bad Times Big Crimes) published by Bayard Poche February 2009. Original artwork by Karen Laborie.