The Chinese New Year Mystery is the 39th book in the Nancy Drew Notebooks series. It was first published in December 2000. The cover tagline says “What’s red and gold and disappears?”
Back of the Book Summary:
What’s Chinese New Year without a dragon?
The third-grade classes at Nancy’s school are learning about Chinese culture, and they’ll celebrate the Chinese New Year with a special parade. The highlight of the parade will be a dragon costume. Nancy’s class is making it out of feathers, sequins, gold tassles, and red silk. But right before the big day, the dragon disappears!
Nancy, Bess, and George are in the New Year’s spirit. They’ve enjoyed a delicious feast at the home of classmate Mari Cheng. She’s even lent the girls special Chinese outfits to wear. But without the dragon, there will be no parade. And that makes Nancy roaring mad!
Inside Teaser:
A surprise in disguise.
Nancy, George, and Bess walked to Mari Cheng’s house. There were lots of bushes in front of the house. Their dark green branches were covered with snow.
As the girls got close to the door, Nancy heard a rustlig noise in the bushes. “What’s that?” she whispered to her friends.
“It’s probably just a squirrel,” George replied. She reached up to ring the doorbell.
But before she could do that, the rustling noise grew louder. The bushes began to shake, and a puffy cloud of snow rose in the air.
All of the sudden, something jumped out of the bushes toward the girls. It was a weird creature with a tiger face!
“Grrrr!” the creature snarled.
Review:
Nancy, Bess, and George absorb the Chinese New Year with enthusiasm. While I am unsure of any stereotypes or cliches about the Chinese culture, the book paints a beautiful image of its richness. A lot of food is mentioned, and the details about decorations are frequently listed.
Compared to other Nancy Drew notebooks, George was not a terrible tease this time. The culprit was distinct, but there were many viable suspects in this story. I disagree with the back of the book synopsis, that Nancy is roaring mad about the missing dragon head, but I did find her to be very motivated to solve the mystery since it would be a disappointment to everyone to cancel the parade.
The common course of Nancy’s investigation is her visiting every suspect’s house to ask them about the missing dragon head (a decorated papier-mache costume).
Nancy Drew Canon Observations:
Nancy keeps a blue notebook for her notes and suspect list, gifted to her by her father, Carson Drew.
Carson’s nickname for Nancy is “Pudding Pie.”
Brenda Carlton is in Nancy’s class, and is described as snooty. Brenda’s best friend is listed as Alison Wegman.
Dewitt is a town near River Heights, and Dewitt Middle School is mentioned. Their mascot is a Dragon. River Heights Middle School’s mascot is the Rebels.
It is noted that Nancy often walks to school with a girl named Rebecca Ramirez.
Carl Sandberg Elementary is where Nancy attends school for her third-grade year. Her teacher is Mrs. Reynolds and the assistant principal is Ms. Oshida. The other third-grade teacher is Mrs. Apple. The art teacher is Ms. Frick.
Extra Notes:
Published for Minstrel by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.
Cover art by Joanie Schwarz. Inside pages are illustrated by Jan Naimo Jones.
Length: 71 pages in the main story.
