Nancy Drew on Campus was a series of twenty-five books published as a young adult spin-off from the long-running Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published...

 mystery series between 1995 and 1998. The series was published by Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

's Young Adult imprint Simon Pulse.

Purpose

Launched as a fourth ongoing series featuring the teen detective Nancy Drew, Nancy Drew on Campus sought to fill a gap in the market untouched by the all-ages original series

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories

The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories was the long-running "main" Nancy Drew series, published between 1930 and 2003. Initially, titles were published by Grosset & Dunlap, but with #57 publication switched to Simon & Schuster. Most people consider these first 56 to be the original series and consider the...

 (launched in 1930), the more teenage-oriented Nancy Drew Files

The Nancy Drew Files

The Nancy Drew Files, or the Nancy Drew Case Files, is a detective fiction series started in 1986 and released by Simon & Schuster, New York. It is a spin-off of the original series of novels featuring Nancy Drew, with a greater emphasis on adventure, malice and romance. All the books have been...

series (launched in 1986), and the pre-teen Nancy Drew Notebooks

Nancy Drew Notebooks

The Nancy Drew Notebooks are a series of books featuring the amateur sleuth Nancy Drew. The stories are aimed at younger readers and portray an 8-year-old Nancy and her friends in the third grade. The books are illustrated by occasional black and white drawings...

series (1994).

Nancy Drew on Campus attempted to target the older teenage, romance-reading audience, by sending Nancy (with friends Bess Marvin

Bess Marvin

Elizabeth "Bess" Marvin is a character in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. She is one of Nancy Drew's best friends, along with George Fayne, who is Bess' cousin. Bess and George are introduced to readers in the 1931 novel,The Secret at Shadow Ranch. Bess was originally described as having...

 and George Fayne

George Fayne

Georgia "George" Fayne is a character in the popular Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. She is one of Nancy's best friends and cousin of Bess Marvin. Her real name is Georgia, although no one calls her that except her parents...

) to Wilder University

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

. Viewed by many fans as effectively jettisoning the core tenets which set Nancy Drew apart (the mystery), the books instead focused more on the trials and tribulations of growing up away from home and dealing with college life, and boys.

The series lasted just three years and twenty-five volumes before ceasing.

Reader interaction

The first book in the series, New Loves, New Lives contained an invite for readers to call a 1-800 number

Toll-free telephone number

A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call...

 and "vote on whether Nancy should stay with or break up with Ned

Ned Nickerson

Ned Nickerson is a fictional character in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the collective pseudonym "Carolyn Keene". Ned is often referred to as Nancy Drew's boyfriend...

. This formed the plot of the second book, and it appears that "those who called in axed... Ned," further distancing the series from the familiar Nancy Drew universe.

List of books in the series

Titles in the Nancy Drew on Campus series were released in paperback format by Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

's "Young Adult" imprint Simon Pulse between September 1995 and January 1998.

1. New Lives, New Loves
   New Lives, New Loves
   New Lives, New Loves is the first book in the Nancy Drew on Campus series of young adult novels. It is about when Nancy begins her first semester at a coed dorm at Wilder University, she finds adventure in a series of dorm thefts, a handsome pre-med student, and her changing relationship with Ned....
   
   
2. On Her Own
3. Don’t Look Back
4. Tell Me the Truth
5. Secret Rules
6. It’s Your Move
7. False Friends
8. Getting Closer
9. Broken Promises
10. Party Weekend
11. In the Name of Love
12. Just the Two of Us
13. Campus Exposures
14. Hard to Get
15. Loving and Losing
16. Going Home
17. New Beginnings
18. Keeping Secrets (book)Keeping Secrets
19. Love On-Line
20. Jealous Feelings
21. Love and Betrayal
22. In and Out of Love
23. Otherwise Engaged
24. In the Spotlight
25. Snowbound

External links

Nancy-Drew Mysterynet: Nancy Drew on Campus