Hey y'all and welcome to the Nancy Drew Challenge! Today we're taking a look at Nancy's 52nd adventure, The Secret of the Forgotten City:
Oh hey look, *another* mostly brown cover (see Double Jinx, Crossword Cipher, and 99 Steps) but I suppose this one is different because it's a lighter, warmer brown than the others. I do like the composition though, with the cool rock formation and silhouetted figures in the background.
Case file: The Drew Crew surprises Nancy with an archaeological trip to Nevada at the same time as a First Nations woman approaches Nancy to see if she can solve the mystery of a bunch of stone tablets with carved petroglyphs on them. Why don't my friends ever surprise me with archaeological expeditions? On second thought, it's just as well they don't because outside is where the bugs live. Anyway, Nancy desecrates yet another First Nations grave and finds yet another buried treasure.
Here's my card:
One of the bad guys (because there's always bad guys) puts a sidewinder snake in Nancy's car at one point of the book, and George grabs it with her bare hands and then calmly tells the others to drive her out of town so she can release it back into the wild. Okay, George. As it happens, I have a snake stamp in the Ancient Art stamp set, which I thought might be a nod to the petroglyph plot in the book, and I paired it with a weathered pattern from the Earthen Textures DSP.
I pondered what greeting to put on here before I decided to leave it without one and just do the snake in three shades of brown.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Ancient Art
Ink: Cinnamon Cider, Copper Clay, Early Espresso
Paper: Copper Clay, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Earthen Textures DSP
Accessories: Dimensionals, Earthen Matte Dots
And I do have a second card for this book:
Before they leave on the expedition to Nevada, the entire Drew Crew comes over for dinner at Nancy's house and Hannah makes apple snow pudding with raspberry sauce for dessert, which is something I had never heard of before but now I want to try making it since I found recipes online. For now I decided to make a sort of sepia-toned card with Apple Harvest.
I chose a patterned paper with metallic accents since Nancy is once again after a golden treasure.
Supplies, all SU!
Stamps: Apple Harvest
Ink: Early Espresso, Stampin' Blends in Copper Clay, Ivory, various neutrals, Chalk pen
Paper: Early Espresso, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla, All About Autumn DSP Stack
Accessories: Everyday Arches dies, Apple Harvest dies, Dimensionals, Brushed Metallic Dots
Okay y'all, I finally have a contender for Worst Nancy Drew Book Ever to compete with Ivory Charm. This is the THIRD time that Nancy has dug up a First Nations grave (see the revised text of Hollow Oak and then Pine Hill) and somehow the treatment of First Nations culture gets progressively worse in each book. Nancy and her friends unearth a skeleton in this book with no supervision from an actual accredited archaeologist, wire it together, then take it back to base camp that night and MAKE IT DANCE AROUND THE CAMPFIRE. Zero respect. Ned and his friends must change their college majors every other week to facilitate Nancy's cases, they were something biology-related for Spider Sapphire and then Ned was working with lasers in Glowing Eye, not to mention his interest in international business in Fire Dragon, and now they're pretend archaeologists. And now Nancy can speak a more obscure Spanish dialect to talk to some gold prospectors who are looking in the wrong place, and she's able to figure out the story of the petroglyphs on the tablet despite having no knowledge of First Nations cultures that we've ever heard about. Can you tell my favorite part of this book is the mention of apple snow pudding? One half star for the pudding. If you're inspired to make a card, please leave me a comment below! And check back next week, when we take to the skies to investigate The Sky Phantom.
