by Robert Gould
Long before reading was fundamental or Harry Potter and Captain Underpants burst onto the scene with magic and scatological humor (respectively), there were The Hardy Boys - the well-groomed, good-natured, parent-friendly siblings who attracted heinous crimes like Curious George attracts malfunctioning candy factories.
First authored by Leslie MacFarlane (and then by a legion of ghostwriters), the Hardys have become a world-wide phenomenon in their 80-plus years of existence.
Here are a few great and not so great moments from the history of the Hard Boys:
The Tower Treasure released
Even now, cynical and crusty at the age of 54, seeing the cover of this book gives me goose bumps. It was cool then and it's cool now. In a preview of themes from just about every book in the series, The Tower Treasure begins with the boys chasing a stranger who is up to no good and ends with the somewhat death-defying hope that "another mystery would soon come their way." And indeed it did. The 57 volumes that followed would represent the canon of classic Hardy Boys mysteries, as well as one of the greatest selling literary series of all time.
The boys go "PC"
After 1959, editors, concerned about the rather WASPy nature of the lead characters, gave Frank and Joe a couple of ethnic sidekicks to help out the crew in a more socially acceptable way. Young readers growing up in Middle America were now exposed to the Italian and Jewish cultures via new side-kick characters Tony Prito and Phil Cohen. Elie Weisel it wasn't, but it still represented an admirable effort, during that time, to expose young minds to different American cultures.
Giving birth to a genre
The success of the Hardy Boys paved the way for additional popular youth-oriented titles. The Hardy's original publisher, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, went on to sell tens of millions of copies of The Bobsey Twins, Tom Swift, and of course Joe and Frank's female counterpart, Nancy Drew (with whom the Boys would team up in countless popular stories over the years).
The Boys become a world-wide phenomenon
As of 2007, The Hardy Boys have been translated into over 25 different languages, including Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Russian and Japanese - thus proving the universal appeal of a sinister figure, a hidden key and a creaky grandfather clock.
An important place in education
Perhaps the most prominent place the Hardy Boys hold in history is that they have kick-started a love of reading with generations of boys. In a world where boys lag significantly behind girls in reading skills, these simple mystery books geared towards young males have stood out like beacon. One can only imagine how many great students and authors have achieved success thanks to their entry - via the Hardy Boys - into the world of reading. There's no denying their place as one of the best literary on-ramps for young men who have gone on to bigger and better things.
What does the future hold for the frères Hardy? One can only hope that, like Lincoln Logs and Raggedy Ann, this is a timeless childhood classic that will never truly go away - even in the face of PlayStation 6's or Virtual Rubik cubes. The Hardy Boys are a classic, and classics never go out of style.
Robert Gould is a children's literacy advocate and the Creator/Author of 19 books for boys, including the popular new "movie-style" Time Soldiers® adventure books and "Father and Son Read Aloud Stories." You can find more information on books and reading for boys at http://www.bigguybooks.com/ For a FREE dinosaur book to get your reluctant reader jump started on a life-long love of reading, go to http://www.freedinosaurbook.com/
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