Includes bibliographical references and index.

Victorian and Vassar girls: nineteenth-century origins of girls' series fiction -- Schoolgirls and sorority sisters: progressive era high school and college series -- Adventure girls and the new woman: from the progressive era to the jazz generation -- The secret of Nancy Drew and her sister sleuths: -- Career girls and World War II -- Romances and revisions: the junior novel and the new Nancy Drew -- Romance meets reality: girls' series fiction and the second wave of feminism -- Sweet dreams for teen queens: romance renaissance in the Reagan era -- High school horrors! Genre fiction for teens.

"In Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths: Girls' Series Books in America, Carolyn Carpan provides a social history of girls' series fiction published in America from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century."--Back cover.