Carolyn Keene’s Hidden Pictures is a Nancy Drew mystery for 9 year olds about people who seem to vanish into old black-and-white photographs.<\/p>\n
Nancy has talked Bess and George into a trip to Shady Oaks, a rainy little town hours from home. The excuse is a new exhibition by a famous photographer. The truth? Nancy hadn’t even heard of him until a couple of days ago (her friends work that out very quickly).<\/p>\n
Someone posted her a newspaper cutting. A young museum worker called Grace has gone missing, and her image has turned up in one of the exhibition photos (all of them taken in the 1940s).<\/p>\n
Then, on their first morning, a girl screams on the museum steps. Her boyfriend has vanished too. And there he is on the wall, in a hoodie and jeans, walking through a street scene from 1945.<\/p>\n
The whole town is whispering about a curse, laid by the photographer’s old partner after the two of them fell out. And the police are threatening to close the museum by Friday.<\/p>\n
So is it a curse, or is someone being very clever with a camera? Nancy doesn’t believe in curses for a second.<\/p>\n
There’s a great bunch of people to puzzle over. A curator whose museum was struggling until the missing people started selling tickets. The photographer’s granddaughter, who’s said to have never liked him. And a super-keen fan called Riley who seems to know everything about his photos.<\/p>\n
It’s all in Nancy’s own words, so you’re squashed behind a dusty bookcase in a staff corridor with her. She finds a hidden door with a keypad. Then she sneezes and gives herself away!<\/p>\n
Bess and George are lovely company. Bess turns up in matching polka-dot wellies and umbrella. George keeps waving her phone in the air looking for a signal.<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. People going missing is the heart of this one, with talk of a curse and even kidnap. It’s more creepy than scary in the opening chapters, and Nancy is sure there’s a sensible answer. She’s not above a fib or two to get people talking, either (she pretends to be a magazine reporter).<\/p>\n
It’s number nineteen in the Nancy Drew Diaries. The opening chapters don’t lean on any earlier book, so it works fine as a first one. If your reader enjoys spotting a clue in a picture, this one’s a treat.<\/p>\n
If they’re after more art with their mystery, try The Vanishing Statue, next in the series. It’s back home in River Heights this time, with a mysterious invitation to a grand arts party and a statue that goes missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolyn Keene’s Hidden Pictures is a Nancy Drew mystery for 9 year olds about people who seem to vanish into old black-and-white photographs. Nancy has talked Bess and George into a trip to Shady Oaks, a rainy little town hours from home. The excuse is a new exhibition by a famous photographer. The truth? Nancy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14477,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8256,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Vanishing Statue","lr_seo_hook":"A curse, a creepy museum and a missing girl who turns up in a 1940s photo.","lr_series_id":55,"lr_series_name":"Nancy Drew Diaries","lr_series_position":19,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":"166"},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[166],"class_list":["post-14478","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-carolyn-keene"],"yoast_title":"Nancy Drew Diaries 19 – Hidden Pictures by Carolyn Keene | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A curse, a creepy museum and a missing girl who turns up in a 1940s photo. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n