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#13, The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
I wasn’t looking forward to reading this because I expected a lot of racism. It paints Indians as unintelligent. There is a single line of Hindi that supposedly translates to “Be calm, friend” but I can’t verify it.
Rai the villain is a big jerk. Ned gets jealous. Nancy solves the case. Happy ending. You know the drill.
I believe this is the first book where Nancy is described as having “strawberry-blonde” hair instead of “titian-colored.”
“The man looked at her with scorn. ‘I am Rai, the great Rai. This is my son. I can whip him if I want to.’ ‘Not in America,’ Nancy said firmly. The man laughed raucously. ‘I am not subject to the laws of your country. We are from India.’”
“You, Nancy Drew, will be reborn to become the beautiful wife of a rajah of India!”
Phrase of the Book
“You certainly walked out of that neatly.”
Foods Mentioned
- fresh-roasted peanuts
- cool drinks
- orange juice and Hannah’s special griddle cakes
- hot broth
- tea and cakes
- bacon
- peanuts and popcorn
Outfits
- bright-green tunic over straight-legged white pants
- “long exotic-looking gown and turban. He carried a whip and a metal-tipped stick”
- black corduroy trousers, a sleeveless leather jacket, and a misshapen, dirty felt hat
- “a long flowing white costume and turban, and carried a jewel-bound book in her hand”
- round, banded silk hat
Nancy’s Memento
At the end of the book, Nancy is promised the ivory charm once it’s fixed, and she and her friends will receive some jewels.
“Rishi and I can never repay you for what you have done for us. But as a token of our appreciation, we will have this ivory charm repaired, then present it to you as our most precious material object.”
“Rishi tells me you also recovered our stolen fortune in jewels. You and your friends who helped you shall have mementos from that collection, too.”
Koffee & Kpop 
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