Nancy Drew on Campus was a series of twenty-five books published as a young adult spin-off from the long-running Nancy Drew mystery series between 1995 and 1998. The series was published by Simon & Schuster's Young Adult imprint Simon Pulse.
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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 (launched in 1930), the more teenage-oriented Nancy Drew Files series (launched in 1986), and the pre-teen Nancy Drew Notebooks series (1994).
Nancy Drew on Campus attempted to target the older teenage, romance-reading audience, by sending Nancy (with friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne) to Wilder University. 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.[1][2]
The series lasted just three years and twenty-five volumes before ceasing.
The first book in the series, New Loves, New Lives contained an invite for readers to call a 1-800 number and "vote on whether Nancy should stay with or break up with Ned.[1] 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.[2][1]
Titles in the Nancy Drew on Campus series were released in paperback format by Simon & Schuster's "Young Adult" imprint Simon Pulse between September 1995 and January 1998.[3]
Nancy-Drew Mysterynet: Nancy Drew on Campus