# Children's Mystery Series (Pre-1970), Who read them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2005, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618 "2005-04-16T10:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/1 "2005-04-16T10:13:07Z")
We all know The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Bobbsey Twins. What about these series: The Happy Hollisters Brains Benton Danny Dunn Ginny Gordon The Power Boys The Three Investigators The Mad Scientists Club All of these are now collectors items to some degree or other but which ones do you remember and why? Best written? Most entertaining? Or, which would you be most likely to re-read today and enjoy? On another note, does anyone else have fond memories of the Henry Reed series? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/2 "2005-04-16T10:15:27Z")
And of course if you know any of them, which is your favorite book and why is that? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/3 "2005-04-16T11:56:05Z")
I remember the Happy Hollisters; in fact, I still have two of them. I re-read them a couple of years ago. Boy, were they lame. I can remember reading them as a child and thinking they were wonderful. 😃 What was that other series about a boy and his sister and his best friend? The boy sort of modeled himself after Albert Einsten. I think his name was Alvin. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/4 "2005-04-16T13:04:47Z")
I loved the Mad Scientists Club books (I only knew about two of them though, were there more?). Hadn’t really thought of them as “mystery” books in the same sense as the Hardy and Drew books. The Bobbsey Twins weren’t always juvie mystery books. I used to have some of the original BT books that belonged to my mom when she was a girl. The plots concerned themselves with such weighty matters as whether Bert would get his gold watch for keeping his promise to his father that he wouldn’t smoke until he was 21. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/5 "2005-04-16T13:20:45Z")
I remember The Three Investigators (a.k.a. “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators,” back when Hitch was alive). Jupiter Jones, Jeff Crenshaw and Bob something. None of them was cut out to be a solo hero; each one was great at something, but had some limiting flaw (Jupter Jones was a fat kid genius who lived in a junkyard. Jeff was a skinny kid in a leg brace and Bob was a dumb jock; Mesomorph, ectomorph, endomorph). They weren’t rich, but had (through contrived means) unlimited use of a limo company’s chauffered Rolls Royce. I haven’t read or seen any of these since 1972. I guess they’re still published. I also really liked Encyclopedia Brown. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/6 "2005-04-16T13:23:26Z")
I remember loving the Happy Hollisters, but who or what the Happy Hollisters were – nope, got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/7 "2005-04-16T13:38:37Z")
Trivia: name all the memebrs of the Mad Scientists Club, including the narrator. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/8 "2005-04-16T13:49:02Z")
The narrator was Charlie. Beyond that, you got me. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/9 "2005-04-16T14:33:34Z")
I was a big fan of the Three Investigators. I read all the books in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/10 "2005-04-16T14:55:59Z")
What, no **Enid Blyton**? 🙂 Secret Seven Famous Five (Those kids seemed forever to happen to find dangerous criminal or spies, and could understand just enough of an overheard bit of converstaion “luckily remembering the only bit of Croatian that she knew” and so on. :rolleyes: Lashings of ginger ale! ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/11 "2005-04-16T15:03:50Z")
You betcha I know who **Henry Reed** is - in fact, I’ve managed to secure a few of those books. Here’s one you missed - Donna Parker. And I think the Boxcar Children might’ve solved a mystery or two. Anybody else remember Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton Burgess (who I somehow confused with Burges Meredith - quack quack quack quack)? Or the Beany Malone series? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/12 "2005-04-16T15:19:48Z")
I read pretty much all of the Three Investigators. I envied their cleverly concealed and totally tricked out underground clubhouse in the junkyard. I also read quite a few of the Enid Blyton books. The Brit show _Comic book Presents_ did a couple of great send-ups of the Blyton formula, including one called "Five Go Mad On Mescaline\*. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/13 "2005-04-16T15:20:08Z")
You left off [Encyclopedia Brown](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553157248/102-8213027-4916912?v=glance). ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/14 "2005-04-16T15:21:05Z")
I recall the Happy Hollisters and the Three Investigators (only read some of these books). Trixie Belden? Tom Swift (a teenage genius scientist-inventor type)? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/15 "2005-04-16T16:26:02Z")
Kids are absolutely still reading Encyclopedia Brown; I reccommend them at the library all the time to reluctant little boy readers. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/16 "2005-04-16T16:40:52Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > You betcha I know who **Henry Reed** is - in fact, I’ve managed to secure a few of those books. Oooooh, I _loved_ those books. Don’t tell me they’re out of print, I’ll weep. I also read the Three Investigators; Danny Dunn (more like an Archie Comics sci-fi series…he had a scientist/inventor boarder who provided him with a time machine, a “homework machine” (computer), an antigravity spaceship, a “weather machine,” an entire automatic house, and a whole buncha other shit…also a Jughead-type buddy named Joe and a ponytailed Betty-type girlfriend); and the Mad Scientists’ Club. I had no idea there was a second volume; I only have the first one. I gave it to my 9-year-old son, who has evinced absolutely no interest in it. I was also crazy about the “Sprockets, the Little Robot” series, because I was robot-crazy as a kid. THOSE, I know, are OOP, rare, and expensive. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/17 "2005-04-16T16:50:50Z")
I know of Brains Benton, having found a couple of books years ago from that series. As I recall, he was the only baseball-playing geek ever. Were the books hokey and unrealistic? You bet. Fun to read? Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/18 "2005-04-16T16:59:57Z")
I loved the Three Investigators. Jupiter Jones was my hero. ---
**Author:** ![wonderwench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@wonderwench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderwench)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/19 "2005-04-16T17:01:27Z")
Two thumbs up for Mad Scientists’ Club and Henry Reed here as well. A slightly different genre, but I also love the old Willard Price Adventure books. They are about the two sons of a zoologist and are fun reads. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618/20 "2005-04-16T17:09:44Z")
The ones I remember are Danny Dunn, the Three Investigators and Henry Reed. All read from the youth section of the public library (so perhaps they’re still there). Of these, I most remember Henry Reed, particularly one involving the cross-country trip and his clever solution for lowering the swimming pool. And the painting they bought and modified. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childrens-mystery-series-pre-1970-who-read-them/299618.md?page=2)