wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote:
My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great
Airport
Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to
land
in the street. My son has about 600 hours of air time with me.


You guys with young sons at home should try to find those Hardy
Boys books at used-book stores. I started picking them up when our son
was about seven, and he ate them up as fast as I could find them. Over
a period of about three years we acquired the whole range of the
original series, about 56 books, and because he read so much his school
grades were high and he still loves reading. He'll be 19 soon. Long
past the Hardy Boys stage, but well into the sort of literature usually
read by middle agers. He knows more about the World Wars, for instance,
than most adults, and has read travelogues written by people who have
explored the world. When he needs info about something he's building,
he knows where to find it.
When I was a kid my teachers said that the Hardy Boys books were
cheap fiction, followed a predictable plot, and weren't worth reading.
So I didn't read them. When I read a couple of my son's books I was
surprised at the amount of useful information in them, things a young
fella should know.
Yes, you can land in the street, but don't let the sherriff see
it. The Hardy Boys' cops are just a little unreal, probably the weakest
characters in the books.

Dan