Customer Reviews

The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew, Book 2)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is by Carolyn Keene. This book is a wonderful fiction book. It has not won any awards. Every once in a while it will have a few pictures. Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is the second book in its series. The Nancy Drew collections are great for all ages, whether your nine or ninety-nine!

This fun filled book is about a young daring detective named Nancy Drew. Nancy has just gotten a phone call from her best friend Helen Corning. Helen tells Nancy that her great aunt and great grandmother have been living together at Twin Elms. Helen tells Nancy that her great aunt and great grandmother have just gotten a big spook. Helen says they were robbed, heard thumps in the night, and have heard strange music when no one has turned on the radio Helen begs Nancy to come to Twin Elms and try to solve the mystery. Nancy is unsure if she should go and try to solve the mystery at Twin Elms because a person named Nathan Gomber told Nancy that her father was in great danger. Nancy decided to go to Twin Elms because her dad told her he wasn't in any danger. Read the story to find out what danger lies before Nancy and her friends!

The author paints a clear picture with her words. She chooses her words very carefully. You do not need any pictures because she creates a clear image in your mind. An example of her writing is "Nancy Drew began peeling off her garden gloves as she ran up the porch steps into the hall to answer the ringing telephone." (page 1)

This book is great for anyone who likes a good mystery. If you like other Nancy Drew books you will definitely love this one. This spine-chilling, breath-taking book will get you so wrapped up you will never want to put it down, so what are you waiting for? Go ahead and read it!

Written by Mildred Wirt Benson from an outline by Edward Stratemeyer, THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE was first published in 1930. It was the second book in the Nancy Drew series, and it and those that followed presented its heroine as a rich, headstrong, and distinctly reckless teenager who sometimes carried a pistol and who wasn't above breaking the law when it suited her purposes.

As the series progressed and other writers began to generate Nancy Drew novels, the character changed and Nancy was "toned down;" instead of flatly rich, she became reasonably affluent; recklessness was replaced by commonsense caution; and while she might be willing to bend the law a bit she would never knowingly break it. In the 1950s and 1960s the earlier novels were re-written to reflect this change in character. THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE was significantly rewritten in 1959.

In this particular story, Nancy is asked to investigate a supposed haunting at Twin Elms, a colonal mansion occupied by the elderly Miss Flora and her daughter Rosemary: not only have things gone bump in the night, jewelry has come up missing as well. She is assisted in this by her friend Helen, who is Rosemary's niece. Meanwhile Nancy's father, attorney Carson Drew, is working to defeat the shady dealings of the mysterious Mr. Gombet. Needless to say, before too long the two cases begin to link up.

The book is very much of its era: you will not find any cell phones, computers, or similar modern gadgets between its covers. Nancy herself is the "perfect good girl" according to the standards of the day: she tends toward skirts and jackets, wears gloves while gardening and for social occasion, and is never too busy to whip up a quick luncheon (chicken salad always seems to be a favorite) for family or friends.

The Nancy Drew books are not great literature by any stretch of the imagination--they are too distinctly formula for that--but they are competently written, literate, and never talk down to their target audience. They are also good "comfort reading" for grown-ups who recall their childhood reading fondly. Several sources note that THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE is the single best selling title in the series; whether true or not, it is innocent fun.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

When I was nine, I picked up my mother's copy of "The Hidden Staircase" (1930's edition, blue, with yellowed pages that cracked if you bent them), and finished the book in one day. My fervent wish, as I neared the book's conclusion, was that there would be other books with this character still in existence. You can't imagine my joy when I discovered those beautiful yellow spines at my neighborhood E.J. Korvette. (They were $1.19 at Korvette's - $1.50 everywhere else.) I have every hardcover Nancy Drew - and now my two oldest daughters have had a chance to experience her as well. There is much to be learned in all the books. Because of Nancy I knew the chemical symbol for gold, where Macchu Picchu was located, and a slew of other things well before we learned them at school. Love the books...and love this one the most.

Nancy Drew books have always been known as the number 1 mystery books, I agree. The Hidden Staircase leaves you suspensful and hanging. I would recommend ages 5-15 to read this book. Nancy is a teenage slew who lives a life of a detective and a teenager at the same time. She goes on a date then hears she has case to solve. This mystery is of The Hidden Staircase. Two old ladies claim to have a ghost living in their house, so they want Nancy to solve that mystery. At the same time her father has been kidnapped. So as you can tell, this story leaves you hanging and wondering if Nancy will pull through with all of this. If you read the book you can see what happens.

If you like mystery books, you should try The Hidden Staircase. It's a very exciting mystery. The main characters are Nancy, a detective, Helen her best friend, and Aunt Rosemary. Some other important characters are Wille Wharton and mean Gomber. I loved this mystery book. It was interesting, exciting, and you never knew what was going to happen on the next page!

I really like how the mystery ends. Something I didn't like about the book was the mystery had to end, although the book was great. The Hidden Staircase is one of the best books I've read!

The mystery took place in the Twin Elms, a house, and Nancy has to find who or what is scaring them. She searched day and night looking for clues. Nancy and Helen found a secret staircase and it's surprising to find out who is in it! I loved the way the author told about the hidden staircase in the house.

For you kids out there that don't know, the Nancy Drew series has been around since 1929. It was originally written by Mildred A. Wirt Benson, under the pseudonym 'Carolyn Keene'. The originals looked exactly like this- well, except they didn't have the gold sticker-thing.

But the terrible thing is that the originals were re-written, under the same name, but not by the same person, in the fifties. The books lost the spirit and fire that they had originally had, and, unless you were a frequenter (a LUCKY frequenter) of antique malls, you wouldn't be able to find the original text.

Until now.

These books are the originals, and I personally like them much more than the other, later editions. The stories are longer, the pictures are wonderful (they are) and the story itself is much better.

If you have a choice between a newer version and this one- there's no choice. Get this one.

The book that I'm reviewing is The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene. The book is about a hidden staircase in a house that has been there for many years and two teenage detectives, named Nancy Drew and Helen Corning. Nancy's father needs rescuing and Nancy and Helen are brave and they are up for anything that comes in their way.

I like the book because it has mystery in it and I like mysteries. I also like how Carolyn Keene made the characters seem real to me. Some parts were funny and some were dramatic and some sad, but it is good that way. This tale is a joy to read and kids will love it and that is why I give it 5 stars. This is the second book of the series and I look forward to reading the whole series of 50 books.

I read the 1930 version of this book. Although all the original Nancy Drew books are fairly well-written, this is one of the more interesting and exciting books of the series.

This review concerns the original 1930 edition as well as the revised 1959 edition which closely follows the plot of the original, with a few minor changes. A couple of elderly ladies ask for Nancy's help in discovering the truth behind the mysterious things occuring at their house. In my opinion, this is the best book of the series and the only one that I would rate 5 stars. The book was rather well-written and the final few chapters were very interesting and really made me want to read more. My only problem with this book is it's title. I feel that the title, while very appropriate, gives away too much information about the mystery.

I READ THIS BOOK AND EVERY PAGE IS EXCITING!!! YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!!! IT'S SO COOL!!! ONE WORD FOR YOU... INTRIGUING I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! NANCY DREW ROCKS!!! CAROLYN KEENE IS ONE OF THE BEST AUTHORS IN THE WORLD!...