Here is my initial script for my semester project. This is really only the introductory piece. My plan is to go into the history of series books starting with the Rollo books probably and working my way up, touching on each series briefly. I would like to spend a little bit of time discussing the Stratemeyer Syndicate and how Stratemeyer used the formula outline with ghost writers. I look forward to receiving your feedback!
Margaret
A Look at Series Books
Donna Parker was my childhood hero. Other kids my age had different heroes, heroes like the Hardy Boys. Girls were hooked on Nancy Drew. But I was never really the Nancy Drew type. Donna Parker was my favorite. There were fewer Donna Parker books than Nancy Drews, but that was okay with me. I stuck with her anyway – and read every last one of them. When I finished reading the Donna Parker books, I moved on to the Cherry Ames series, starting with Cherry Ames, Student Nurse. Those didn’t quench my thirst for series books, so I chose another series with the help of my grandmother. Mommy Kate led me to a series written much earlier by a woman named Mazo de la Roche. The series was known as the Jalna series and contained 16 books starting with Building of Jalna. I had easy access to these books each summer when I got to spend a week with Mommy Kate at her home in Clarksville. Since she worked at the Red River County Library there in Clarksville, I spent much time among the books there working my way through de la Roche’s series.
As an adult, I re-lived my love of series books, moving again through the stage of unconscious delight, first with Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries and then with Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. The Kathy Reichs series drew me in next. Once I finish this degree, I can get back to reading those series books!
I see my students reading series books, too. Some of them like the Bluford High books while others prefer to read Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sometimes I have to fight the urge to push them to read something else. But then I stop and think again about the stage of unconscious delight. It’s not so much what they are reading sometimes as it is THAT they are reading. Then I decide that it’s fine with me as long as they’re reading.
