Nancy Drew movie night

Growing up I read the Nancy Drew books obsessively. I discovered Nancy Drew books in 5th grade and they became my go-to book for a few years, even if they were ridiculously easy for me to read. I spent most of the 5th and 6th grade going by the library looking to see if they had new books, and picking up Nancy Drew books at used bookstores. I knew there was a Nancy Drew movie and TV show from years earlier, and it was on my list to look up when Jeff found a Nancy Drew movie on Netflix that had the feel of the Nancy Drew books while updating the character for now. It was an example of updating an older book series done well. Our Nancy Drew movie night was a lot of fun, and the kids certainly enjoyed this latest addition to our book and a movie night.

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What are the Nancy Drew books?

The Nancy Drew books were the first series books written to a formula. You read them knowing you will get a short review of her last mystery, be introduced to her friends and boyfriend again, about 2/3 through she’ll be kidnapped just as she finds a crucial clue, and always solves it in the end.

Over the years, there have been attempts to update the character. During the 90s they made Nancy Drew Case Files, and in the past decade they made Nancy Drew sleepovers, featuring a young Nancy solving little kid mysteries. In the last five years, they made another update with Nancy as a blogger, I think. I need to double check that one.

For the assignment, I pulled out all of my Nancy Drew books and let the kids read whichever Nancy Drew books they felt like, rather like I did for our Ramona movie night.

Nancy Drew movie night snacks

As I said, this movie is not a recreation of any of the classic plots, but a completely new plot. So, while the snacks we came up with make sense for the books, it has little to do with the movie.

We did not have a meal for our Nancy Drew movie night, much to my chagrin, it’s kind of fun to have a meal worked into it. Also, since I used book covers for our snack labels, I can’t legally share the labels for my Newsletter subscribers. I’ll make some new labels soon so I can have some for y’all.

I’m going to link to each of these books on Amazon also because it amuses me.

• The Ghost of Blackwood Hall– meringues with mini chocolate chips for eyes
• The Secret of the Old Clock– Nilla Wafers with frosting numbers, though I only did a few with the frosting because in all truth the kids prefer it with just Nilla Wafers….
• Nancy’s Mysterious Letter– graham crackers with marshmallow fluff (this could also be a notebook for her handy notebook she keeps)
• The Sign of the Twisted Candles– pretzel sticks dipped in melted butterscotch chips, I wish I’d dipped them in yellow candy melts, but I had butterscotch chips
• The Clue in the Jewel Box– I used a few different cookies that were chocolate covered for this one, in particular Little Debbie cupcakes and Nutty Buddies

Some more great 5th grade ideas