As the father of a ten and a twelve year-old, the tutor is a purveyor and reader of children’s stories.

As a parent, I’ve made lots of mistakes – especially with off-the-cuff decisions. With the long game, I hope I’ve done better.  I’m generally good at setting a course and staying on it.

One focus of mine and my wife’s has always been reading to our kids.  As an example, my wife read them the Harry Potter series about five years ago.  Next, I had my turn. Afterwards, I read them the whole series even another time.  We’d read Harry Potter to them at night:  they’d fall asleep to it.

Predating our Harry Potter era by a few years, I began reading Hardy Boys mysteries to the kids.   The way it started, I think, was that my wife’s parents dropped off a few of them.  That may have been when my kids were three and five.

I didn’t get to the Hardy Boys right away.  However, one day I needed something to entertain them with at meal time.  Seeing a Hardy Boys mystery, I picked it up, then sat the children at their places at the table.  While my wife prepared lunch, I started reading.

I only read one Hardy Boys mystery as a kid:  it was The Mystery at Devil’s Paw.  I read it when I was confined to bed, recovering from a flu.  Lots of my friends did book reports on Hardy Boys titles starting around grade four, but I never really got into the series as a kid.  I preferred The Three Investigators series.

As an adult, though, I enjoyed the The Hardy Boys mystery The Tower Treasure from the beginning.  Within a few pages the action started.  While targeted at older kids than mine were at the time, its pace kept them interested.   My wife liked listening to it, too.

The Hardy Boys became our mealtime routine.  We finished The Tower Treasure and began the second one, The House on the Cliff.  Being attentive to detail, my wife’s parents had dropped off, I believe, the first five in the series.

During winter, when the weather was inclement, I’d continue reading after lunch on the weekends.  We’d all migrate to the living room, where I’d read the Hardys while the kids lay back, listening, and my wife did paperwork or spreadsheets sitting on the couch.

In the earlier Hardy Boys mysteries, the chapters are often a regular length – maybe 7, 8, 9, or 10 pages.  In a given book, if the first chapter is 8 pages, the rest are likely about the same.  You know when next there will be a good time to break. Usually, a chapter ends with a sudden twist that leaves you looking forward to the following one.

The Hardy Boys mysteries feature car chases, scuffles, and stakeouts.  For a reader like me, who appreciates settings, the author describes the cold woods, the sticky aroma of pine trees, the dim shadows of the cave, or other key features of the setting in which the boys find themselves.  Lots of the action is at night.

As I understand it, Franklin W. Dixon wrote all the Hardy Boys mysteries, of which there are 66 I know of.  His first, The Tower Treasure, came out in 1927.  The following seventeen or so appeared in the late twenties or in the thirties.  Those early ones have been republished two or three times.  The last one I have, The Firebird Rocket (no. 57), came out in 1978.

Up against modern children’s books, the old Hardy Boys are every bit as good, if not better. However, they are obviously dated, which appeals to kids probably less now than ever. Typically, an original series Hardy Boys book might have around six pictures, which are black and white drawings.  The books are definitely text-heavy, and have some uncommon vocabulary which actually pushes their sophistication to a higher level than one might expect.  While they claim to target ages 10 to 14, they may in fact have much wider appeal.

I have read about four dozen of the Hardy Boys mysteries to my kids.  We’re not done; I hope to read them all.  I highly recommend them as standby material for parents to read to their children.

I’ll be offering more commentary about ideas from this post in future ones:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.