Mysteries for the 8 to 12 set: Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown

I decided to have a blast from the past this week and revisit the characters that began my addiction to reading - The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I haven't visited my "old friends" in a long time and decided to get one of their new adventures to see how they held up. Well, I am sorry to say that I was VERY disappointed. I enjoyed reading these stories so much and looked forward to the day that Matt could read them too. After reading "Terror on Tour", he'll only be reading the original series - at least until I can check others out.

"Terror on Tour" is a mystery featuring both The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew written by Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene. This book was published in 2007 and SAYS that it is for readers 8 to 12. In my opinion that is too young for some of the content in this book. After only 30 pages in, I was already shaking my head. The story takes place at a Lollapalooza-type concert event. A girl (thankfully NOT Nancy Drew or her friends) is described as wearing a grass skirt and a bikini top that "left little to the imagination". Do we really want 8 to 12 year old boys TRYING to imagine what WASN'T left to the imagination? One of the bands playing at this concert simulates a suicide or murder at every concert, and Joe Hardy and George (Nancy's friend) think this is awesome. A girl is tied up and has electric wires attached to her arms and head so that she can be electrocuted if the villains don't get their way. Joe is said to utter a "string of curse words" - thankfully they don't give us the actual words. Is this what we want our kids thinking is cool? Why can't they find a way to make the characters relevant and "cool" while still making them good examples?

I also visited with Encyclopedia Brown (by Donald Sobol) in his very first book. I was pleased to see that I still enjoyed him. Kids today might find it a little old fashioned, but I think that the chance to solve the mysteries will still be enjoyable. Reading the story, trying to think of the solution and turning to the back of the book to see if you are right is still fun - even for a grown woman. I'm happy to report that I did solve most, but not all, of his stories - so I think it would provide a pleasant challenge to most kids to try and solve them too. In some of the stories Encyclopedia deals with bullies which some kids would relate to also.

I'll be checking out a more recent Encyclopedia Brown book in the future and am hoping that I won't find him as drastically changed as Frank, Joe and Nancy. I'll let you know.

Miss Stacey