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I developed the habit of reading books when I was a fifth grader. As a rule, we had to devote 30 minutes daily to read few pages of book assigned to us from the school library.

While browsing, I came across a series of Nancy Drew books. One of my classmates had read one before, so she goaded me to read a book about a young girl who is a detective. Girl detective sounded so interesting. So I picked up my first Nancy Drew book and got addicted from page one.

Nancy Drew created in 1930 by Edward Stratemeyer & Carolyn Keene, is a highly skilled amateur detective staying with her lawyer father at River Heights. She is brave, bold independent, yet gentle and well-mannered girl who could solve any mysteries with her sheer grit, determination and sharp wits. She would fight villains, face white water rapids while skiing and whip up full course meal for her father and friends.

She loves tinkering with the automobiles as well as cooking, horseback riding, dancing, sewing and athletics. Her companions in solving the whodunits were her steady boyfriend Ned, her best gal pals George and Bess with their respective male friends. The police and her father Carson Drew were ever ready to help with her cases. Despite having the best of everything, she remained unspoiled, polite and caring. She was given full respect by all kinds of readers.

I still remember the very first book I read. It was “The Secret of the Old Clock”. A chance meeting with a little Judy and her aunts leads Nancy to investigate other relatives who are waiting to possess Josiah Crowley’s fortune. A missing antique clock has a clue to the location of the genuine will. Nancy ends up in places where she could get caught and hurt. Through the exciting twists and turns, Nancy tries to find out the original will and who will get the money.

My little one who is just over a year old currently enjoys her first pictures, colors books. When she is old enough I plan to introduce her to Nancy Drew and various other genres of books. Meanwhile I will go to the library, pick up a Nancy Drew and join her in her adventure.

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There has always been a lucrative market for books for children. Parents will know that the bedtime story is an opportunity for parent and child to bond. For some reason, human beings need stories and children particularly need that parallel world. Fairy stories, as well as being entertaining, also served to teach good moral values in the child. Then, books for children tended to split into stories for boys and stories for girls. This demarcation line is more blurred today.

Boys have always tended to read adventure stories involving pirates, explorers, and soldiers. Girls were apt to read about ponies, finishing schools, and training to be a nurse. Occasionally in books for children, there would be a tomboy such as George in the Famous Five books. The past told of an idyllic world where children could safely play all day in the woods or on the river, unsupervised by interfering adults. In today’s books for children, the girls get stuck into dangerous situations as much as the boys. Take Hermione Aprende from the Harry Potter books, for instance.

The modern reader may think the classic books for children from yesteryear to be a little quaint, but that’s part of their charm. Reading them is similar to snuggling in front of an old black and white movie. It’s a comfort blanket. The world of Peter Pan and Wind In The Willows is reassuring.

Every so often, children’s fiction throws up a genius. Roald Dahl was one such man, when he wrote books for children, creating edgy stories in which few grown ups were to be trusted. There is more cynicism and less naivety in his books. The world sadly lost Roald Dahl, but there was another genius waiting around the corner, and her name is JK Rowling.

The Harry Potter books seem to appeal as much to boys and girls. Boys who had never expressed any interest in reading voluntarily now await the next Potter book impatiently. Some critics say there is no place for religion in the Potter world, and children should not be exposed to the dark arts of magic. Read any of the Potter books for children, and the child will learn about comradeship, loyalty and courage. Not bad values for any of us.

Publishers are desperately looking for the next success story in books for children. It could be someone being rejected right now. JK Rowling was turned down nine times before her first book was accepted.

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