Customer Reviews

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm (Nancy Drew, Book 13)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this book, Nancy Drew goes to see a circus and feels sorry for a little boy who appears to be abused by his master. Nancy is surprised when he shows up at her home. He wears a mysterious ivory charm in the shape of an elephant that is supposed to protect the wearer from harm. He gives it to Nancy. She will surely need protection soon after, because she must investigate a mysterious hideout and missing jewels. Could it be that the mystery of the room in the cave and the shady circus are related? read to find out! I would also recommed buying the applewood books fascimle edition of this story. It is priced higher but it is the original story from the 30's. Buy both versions for some flavor and to see how the story was changed.

Im a HUGE Nancy fan and have all her books original & Revised...this book is amazing! Very different from all other Nancy books very surreal... and you are insane if you pass this up. Like I said before, this book uses a different recipe and its great!!!!!!:-)

i love reading these books i plan on reading the whole set i have them on my kindal my husband bought me for my birthday

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm is part of the Nancy Drew Series begun in the 1930's. This particular book is a reproduction of the original. I love the mystery but am particularly delighted with the history portrayed in all the original Nancy Drews. Kids today will not understand Nancy not having access to a cell phone. She uses an electric torch instead of a flashlight and puts chains on her tires when it rains because many of the roads are dirt roads. Was 1930 all that long ago! Great read and I highly recommend these for girls today!
Dawn Kurtz author of the kindle book Secret of the Mexican Doll

As I slowly get the books unpacked into my new bookcase, I have been discovering all kinds of hidden gems. In one long-waiting box that had been shipped from the US I found all of my old Nancy Drew books. At a certain age, I received double Nancy Drew book editions in the mail until the series was over. I just had to sit down one afternoon this summer to take a look at one of the books.

My edition published the standard 1936 version of this Nancy entry. It was originally written by Mildred Wirt Benson. It's an interesting look at race and class from that period, if nothing else. Nancy comes across an Indian circus boy (Coya) being abused by a man who claims to be his father but who is somehow "clearly inferior" to the boy. But class will out in the end, and it turns out that both greater danger and a greater destiny awaits the young man. This is actually a pretty coherent Nancy Drew book. The plot makes sense and the characters are engaging. There's a nice mixture of international intrigue and basic human nature.

Im a HUGE Nancy fan and have all her books original & Revised...this book is amazing! Very different from all other Nancy books very surreal... and you are insane if you pass this up. Like I said before, this book uses a different recipe and its great!!!!!!:-)

I like how Caroline Keene writes. She gives great detail. Such as: "She wore a white turban, and the wind whipped her flowing robes about wildly." Also in this story, I could relate to Nancy. Some things she did, the actions she made, I would of done too; for instance, telling the police about the mystery she was trying to solve.
This book is about a young boy, named Rishi, who was the maharaja of India. He was kidnapped when an infant. The three people that kidnapped him wanted a different person to rule the land. Nancy's job was to find the culprits and arrest them. But it wasn't easy. Rishi's stepfather was after him, trying to kill him, because he knew too much. He kidnapped Rishi twice, almost killing him. Nancy doesn't know where to look for him. Also someone stole her charm with lifesaving fluids in it, which rishi would need to recover from his injuries. Will Nancy find her charm? Will Rishi ever be found?
I think anyone can read this book. Particularly people who like mysteries. And anyone who likes adventure and suspense.

This review concerns the original 1936 edition and the revised 1974 edition which is slightly different from the original but basically tells the same story. Nancy meets a young Indian boy (named Coya in the original, Rishi in the revised) who lives with a circus. The boy is being mistreated by a man named Rai who claims to be the boy's father, but Nancy doubts this claim. Nancy saves Rai from an elephant and to show his thanks he gives Nancy an ivory, elephant charm which he says can protect the wearer from harm. Coya/Rishi runs away from the circus and Rai and the Drews take him in. Later, Rai changes his mind and wants the charm back and he will do anything to get both the charm and Coya/Rishi. Also figuring into this "mystery" are a strange woman and a bizarre house out in the middle of the woods. The house, apparently, has no floor, but it does have a secret passage and a bunch of swings and trapezes hanging from the ceiling. This book was just plain awful!! The mystery, what there is of one, is stupid and boring. The house serves absolutely no purpose other than to use up pages and it makes no sense. Who would build a house like that out in the middle of nowhere? The strange woman in the book is more annoying than anything and comes off as too scatterbrained and weak-minded to be the great criminal mastermind that the plot requires her to be. The book has little in the way of action or suspence. This book is just bad, bad, bad! Take my advice and don't read it.