Princess Mix-up Mystery

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew #24

by Carolyn Keene, Macky Pamintuan (Illustrations)

In Princess Mix-up Mystery , Nancy Drew and her friends must uncover a stinky plot at the local princess makeover beauty parlor. Who switched out the delicious-smelling Strawberry Spritz spray for one that smells like rotten eggs and turns the girls’ hair blue?

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Middle Grade, Chapter Books, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2009

About the author

Carolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company that was the creator of the Nancy Drew series, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired a variety of writers. For Nancy Drew, the writers used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.

Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.

Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.

Reviews

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I liked this book! We read it in a day because we're all sick. It is about a new salon for kids called the Prissy Princess something or another. The girls win a makeover and the hair spray is replaced with stinky blue spray that turns them blue. They're trying to figure out who dunnit. Turns out it was all a misunderstanding and a kid trying to be helpful. I'm glad because some of the other books have had nastiness at its center and this one didnt.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was always my favorite!!!!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cute one!

[Kelly Choy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story and unique plot!

[aem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute mystery with 8 yr old Nancy and the rest of the Clue Crew trying to track down the culprit(s) following some sabotage…. But not sure what was the moral?

[Victoria B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me: 3.5 stars
5 y/o Kid: 4.5 stars

[Mars G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick read. I think this would be a great book to get younger kids into Nancy Drew.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several weeks ago, my seven-year-old daughter came home with a drawing of Nancy Drew. "She's wearing purple because it's her favorite color, and she is a fantastic sleuth," she explained. "We read a book about her in school this week." I was impressed that she knew what a sleuth was (kudos to Mrs. Miller!) and hadn't even known there was a new series out there for beginning chapter readers like Charlotte. This is a fun read-aloud for the age group, and maintains enough of the flavor of the originals (cliffhanger chapter endings! convincing red herrings! George is NOT a girly-girl!) that moms who loved the originals won't be disappointed by the new Nancy, Bess, and George. My daughter has gotten hooked on them, and we've made more than one trip to the library because she had to have the next book in the series. Recommended for the 7-9 set.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another fun mystery in the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series. We've been slowly working our way through the series and we like the characters.

The mysteries are not scary and they aren't too difficult to solve; they often have a twist or two in the plot to keep us guessing, so I am actually somewhat impressed with the writing (especially for a short chapter book for young readers.) The illustrations are entertaining and help depict the action of the story.

This story features a disastrous spa-day for Nancy and the girls. The story is a bit silly, but entertaining nonetheless. We enjoyed reading this story together.

[Greta · Rating 5 out of 5]

These 3 girls are allowed to go 5 blocks away from their house as long as they don't get into any trouble. The housekeeper asked the girls to go and buy stinky deer repellant because the deers were eating her roses, and they go to the Mean Bean and try to buy the repellant, but they don't have it and when they go back they see all these girls at the spa and they're having a contest. I really enjoyed this book. It was amazing!!

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to my 5 year old. Nice story to share, and she liked to try and guess things about each 'suspect' as the story unfolded.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was funny because instead of the strawberry smell,the clue crew got blue bad smelling stuff that smelled of rotten eggs!!! EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

[Shagun Chadha]

Good