“If they read Nancy Drew, so what?”: Series book readers talk back

Abstract

This paper investigates a type of reading material that has inspired the love of beginning readers for almost a hundred years: the series books. Section one draws on the history of publishing to examine nineteenth century forerunners of the twentieth century series books for children—the story papers, dime novels, and cheap libraries—as the context for a century of publicly conducted worry over series books. The second section, which examines the experience of the intended readers of series books, is based primarily on transcripts of 142 open-ended interviews with adult readers who read for pleasure. The third section looks at the texts themselves as evidence for how series books teach beginning readers about the process of reading itself—strategies for making sense out of extended text. The article concludes that series book reading, far from being harmful, might be for some readers an essential stage in their development as powerful literates.