Hardy and Sons

The boys alternate between treasure hunting and looking for their kidnapped friends.

The boys don't die from a grenade.

The boys have a strategy. Then someone throws a hand grenade at them.

This is either a great, bad chapter, or an awful, wonderful chapter. We couldn't decide.

This is an actual chapter from this really, really weird book. It's a mystery told to the boys.... about pilgrims. 

The police receive a tip-off.

The boys discover more than ten mysteries in a chapter drowning in foreshadowing and unnecessary exclamations!

The boys murder several wolves.

The boys wear glasses and virtually disappear. 

We compare our classic blue bound 1956 rewrite to the 1928 original version of this book. There are problems.

The thrilling conclusion to the fifth book from the classic series. The boys basically kill someone.

In this penultimate chapter of book 5, the boys kill a wolf.

The boys head North from Lone Pine.

In the worst plot twist yet, the boys discover someone with split personality via amnesia, and someone hears the whole thing.

The missing guy was hiding in a cliff. We know this the entire time because of the title of the chapter.

Unarmed, the boys pursue an armed criminal into a tunnel. With horses.

The Boys improvise a sting operation and pursue armed criminals unarmed.  

The boys watch two people fight and arbitrarily choose one of them to be "the good guy."

The boys focus on the wrong thing.

The author misses several opportunities for authentic tension and instead becomes obsessed with a compass.

At the very end of the chapter, the boys hike Ambush Trail. They are not ambushed.

The boys make bad decisions underground. They are not stealthy. 

The boys learn about guns while the narrator teaches the children readers about guns as well!

The boys struggle on a roof and trust strangers.

The boys don't really understand what "music" is.

The boys call BS on a ghost story and then rent horses.

The boys continue to downplay threats and suspicion. Then their dad tells them to hunt an attempted murderer.

While this chapter title could describe any Hardy Boys book or chapter, this one is actually more of a boomerang to peril. 

The boys get a call from a stranger. Anytime someone new mentions that strangers, the boys trust them, too. Then they get kidnapped. Obviously.

The boys almost die, people are shot, cars are wrecked, mysteries abound across the country, and the boys trust several strangers.

This is a bad normal. 

We explore what characteristics make the hottest teeth. Also, relationships.

We begin to dissect the differences between the 1920's original and the 1960's rewrite of book 4: The Missing Chums. Turns out, they added a LOT, removed a lot, and kept some really weird things.

I did it. We did it. You did it. 

No read-alongs. Just a celebration of another book finished. 

The boys ambush the enemy. There are no negative consequences for any of their actions.

In this penultimate chapter of book 4, Frank seizes control of the Police and the Coast Guard while Joe listens to criminals explaining the details of all of their crimes.

The boys-- especially Joe-- demonstrate their disastrous instincts multiple times and get captured. Again. 

The boys prove their instincts would set themselves up to be awful parents.

The boys eat several meals to break up the urgency of their kidnapped friends.

The boys untie themselves while their captor is asleep.

The boys make their biggest mistake yet, but think it's a triumph of detectiveship. 

The boys continue to vouch for a convicted criminal.

The boys find a desolate island and profile its inhabitant. 

The boys vouch for a convicted thief. 

We really squander a cool opportunity to shine.

Once again, the boys shrug off good decisions and embrace coincidence. 

Unable to learn more, the boys thanked the proprietor and bought three postcards.

That sentence is emblematic of this chapter and the entire series as a whole.

The boys hide a lot for no reason. Then they eat.

The boys let their guard down. REALLY quickly.