I loved The Three Investigators series. I remember our little local library had an entire shelf dedicated to these and what a joy to discover them. I did not live near a junkyard, but we certainly tried to replicate the secret fort out in the wooded area where we lived. That series certainly fueled my imagination for a time.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

The Three Investigators was probably my favorite mystery series as a kid. I desperately wanted a junkyard hideout of my own with secret entrances and booby traps. I wishfully fancied myself as a cross between Jupiter Jones and Bob Andrews. The first book, The Secret of Terror Castle, even sparked my lifelong love of classic movies.

@TheMikester307

Жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder I read the Three Investigators in Jnr. High and then i stumbled across more of Arthur's short stories in anthologies he edited, some aimed at YA readers under Alfred Hitchcock's name. I am still a big fan!

There are actually quite a number of contemporary series. Though they may not be as long or ongoing as for example, the Stratemeyer Syndicate’s output, they’re definitely represented: Potkin & Stubbs, The Highland Falcon Thief, The London Eye Mystery, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, and more.

I remember reading old Box Car Children and Hardy Boys books when I was a kid in the early 90s. I think I was the only kid at my school who was.

I read my first Nancy Drew as a child and instantly became obsessed! I’ve been an avid collector ever since!

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Wonderful! I think it's important to preserve these books for future generations. I had a similar experience. I started with the Hardy Boys, but I quickly diversified into my sister's Nancy Drew books. I prefer the earliest editions (with white dust jacket spines). The writing is more complex and the stories are more interesting in those editions before they started modernizing and simplifying them in the 1960s.

I discovered The Hardy Boys series at my local library at age 10 in 1963 and read every book they had two or three times. I remember words like roadster, chums, coves, caves, short-wave radios. I bought a short-wave radio and listened to broadcasts from all over the world. The Hardy’s drove boats, flew airplanes and were scuba divers. As an adult reader I have enjoyed the spy novels of Len Deighton and Le Carre. I even read a Hardy Boy book recently and it was quite enjoyable! On a side note, even though young people are hooked on Instagram and TikTok reels (me too) I’ve noticed posters are including historical content about music, movies, and books that a young person might otherwise not see.

@thelibraryladder

10 ай бұрын

"Jalopy" is another word I learned from the Hardy Boys. The Short-Wave Mystery was one of their first books I read, after I discovered my dad's 1940s copy of it in a closet at my grandparents' house when I was about five. It had added significance because I grew up around short-wave radio (my dad had a ham radio license and an actual radio shack). One of the things I most enjoyed about the Hardy Boys was that their adventures often took them to different parts of the country (and the world), providing me a small window onto the wider world. That's encouraging news about social media content including references to older works. I hope that trend continues. Thanks for sharing!

I remember my younger sister being a huge fan of the Sammy Keyes mystery series when she was in middle school. I read the Three Investigators books because there was a stack of old copies in a corner of my fourth grade classroom, but I think I'd graduated to a mix of Agatha Christie and Tony Hillerman by the time I actually got to middle school age. I didn't touch a middle grade mystery again until I was in my early 20s and studying Japanese and picked up Edogawa Rampo's influential Shounen Tanteidan books. I also quite enjoy Yonezawa Honobu's relatively recent Kotenbu ("classic literature club") series of everyday mysteries, in which character employ the trappings of detective fiction to puzzle out mundane problems, such as deducing the ending to an unfinished student film, or tracking down the cause of an interpersonal conflict over the course of a marathon.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the great suggestions of the Sammy Keyes and Kotenbu mystery series! I want to track those down. "Middle grade" is an imprecise label, but in my kids' K-8 school, it generally referred to grades 4-6, which is about where I'd put most books marketed as "middle grade."

@gabrielsyme5570

2 жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder That's interesting to know. I always imagined it as slightly older based on the name. I don't think that you can get any of the six Kotenbu novels in English, unfortunately. (I think there was an animated adaptation that you might find streaming somewhere, but I haven't seen it, so I can't say how accurate it is or how much it covers.) The state of Japanese literary translation in English is unfortunately quite lopsided (in the sense that we used to get a handful of literary classics, and now we get those plus a flood of anime-adjacent YA fiction, but only a tiny fraction of Japan's thriving mystery scene and virtually no science fiction or fantasy aimed at adult readers), so there's a lot that remains inaccessible. You can, however, at least read the first Shounen Tantei-dan book under the title "The Fiend With Twenty Faces" (the translator was my boss at my first job out of undergrad). It's from around 1930 and the start of a long children's series written by one of the early pioneers of Japanese detective fiction (imagine if Conan Doyle had finished his Holmes stories and then immediately sat down to write The Hardy Boys as a sequel with a villain drawing heavily on Arsene Lupin). I think that the later, post-WWII books got too fantastic for their own good, with an emphasis on spectacle and some gadgets that border on science fiction for the time, but the early volumes remain children's classics. On the subject of publishing biases, by the way: this is about an older age-bracket, but a publisher of Japanese YA books I work with once mentioned that mysteries sell terribly for them. Although personally, I'm inclined to attribute that to the type of mystery that ends up with the labels they draw on, plus an established audience heavily skewed to a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and romantic comedy.

I loved the Hardy Boys growing up.....especially the earlier ones. I still have a few nice copies with dust jackets!

The three investigators rule forever! They above all must be rebooted for this age! And finally put in live action.

Jupiter Jones and Leroy Brown! Loved those books.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

The Three Investigators series was my favorite as a kid.

I read most if not all of these series growing up in the 70s. I wouldn’t mind finding these as ebooks just to re-read.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

By drawing attention to those older series, I hope to convince publishers to bring them back into print, even if only in ebook form. I re-read several of the series a few years ago, and many of them still hold up as very enjoyable reads today.

@michaelc8246

2 жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder I wonder if some of the older ones fall into the public domain.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

@@michaelc8246 Anything published after 1963 is almost certainly still copyright protected, but earlier works from between ~1926-1963 might be in the public domain if their original copyrights weren’t renewed before the law changed and grandfathered their copyrights.

I must thank you from the heart for this informative video essay. I love the genre so much but some how the perry mason novels I never read! I will now!

You have a very good point. I've mostly ignored it as I have been collecting and catching up on the classic mysteries. I had only ever read Bobbsey Twins, Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and Hardy boys, so when I found out there were more, I just went nuts and started collecting them. I also started writing fanfic for them on Wattpad and am attempting trying to write new mysteries, some with fantastical elements, as I must have noticed there weren't many options anymore. Great video! Looking forward to to watching more! (KZread did something right, for once.) P.S. Scooby Doo's msyteries have also been feeling this as there had been multiple TV mystery shows once they got big too, one of which was a Hardy boys cartoon where the boys are part of a band. Some episodes can be found on KZread. The 70's Nancy Drew and Hardy boys show is the more iconic series, though. The current Nancy Drew and Hardy boys ... had to throw in some supernatural elements and it just didn't work as well as they insisted it did. Which is a bummer because the cast were awesome in their roles ... the writing left much to be desired. The best episodes were when Nancy, in her series, and the boys in theirs did go chasing down clues. The rest was that adventure/fantasy you were talking about invading.

@thelibraryladder

9 ай бұрын

Thanks! I've started seeing an modest uptick in traditional mysteries for kids being published since I made this video two years ago. It's a very welcome development (and purely coincidental I'm sure). The Adventures on Trains series by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman is a notable example.

At age 11 my daughter loudly lamented in a Barnes & Noble "what can I use my gift card on?! This store doesn't even Nancy Drew!!!!! Enola Holmes was a hit in our home, Premeditated Myrtle, All the Wrong Questions (Lemony Snicket), and York series have been my middle grades favorites.

@thelibraryladder

2 ай бұрын

I can empathize! My daughters loved Enola Holmes and All the Wrong Questions. Also, thanks for bringing Premeditated Myrtle to my attention. I wasn't aware of it, and it looks great.

Thank you for the video! My nephews are avid readers and I sent this video to my brother for book ideas to have them read. They’ve been reading The Boxcar Children and my brother and his wife have read all of the Anne of Green Gables series and the Chronicles of Narnia and many other books. My brother is excited to look for some of the books you talked about 🙌🏼👍🏼

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! This video was a response to six years of helping lead a book club for middle grade students at my kids' school. Each year we'd read ~15 books from a variety of genres. The only requirement was that the books had to still be in print, so the 25-40 students all could have access to them. The mystery genre was one of the hardest to find suitable books for the club to read, and even the ones selected often didn't have strong mystery components.

I collect children's classics but actually don't think I have any classic mysteries. I know I read a few growing up (Nancy Drew, and various books by Enid Blyton) but it didn't really become a favourite genre of mine until I was an adult. For a modern children's mystery series, I highly recommend the Adventures on Trains series by M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman. The early books especially are very Agatha Christie inspired and I absolutely adore them. Later books have more action and are still great.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I discovered the Trains series shortly after making this video. I particularly enjoy the early books in the series.

Love your videos already, and have only watched two!

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm very glad you're enjoying them. I'm having fun making them.

Simply amazing video!

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

As an adult who's worked in education, I've actually found that I'm enjoying older children's books more now than I ever did then. Why? I'm not sure. I sometimes think it's because I disliked reading as a child, so I'm making up for the lost time. While I try and keep myself up to date with new trends and upcoming children's books, I find that why I always go back to the older books is because I'm looking for escapism. There doesn't feel to me to be a lot of that these days in books and film. It's all current, it's all in step with the times, which is wonderful for children, but I gravitate towards a time that maybe reminds me a little more of my childhood. I'm a millennial which makes me a part of that generation that grew up with rotary dial phones still and then advanced to cell phones. Things like that. So my interest in stories before the advent of these major advancements and setbacks in our society spark the flame of nostalgia within me. While working in education I noticed that it was very difficult to get children to read beyond their bubble of interests. It was a challenge even getting them interested in picking up something that they were interested in. Trends come and go like the tide, but I do believe that we won't see another wave like the classic middle-grade mysteries of yesterday, even with modern mysteries. Hopefully, I'm wrong. I know that R.L. Stine's Fear Street series is making a comeback, but it's due in large part to the television series. Maybe what older middle-grade mystery novels need is a modern re-introduction to them through another outlet, like film, to put them back on the map. It's a difficult, if not impossible assignment. I think graphic novels and Manga are what kids are after and it's what's driving the market book sales. So I don't see these lost books really coming back into the public's eye, let alone the school reading list. Of course, there are those rare kids, everybody will claim their child reads these, but that number has never accounted for the majority, and working in education has taught me that these books generally fall out of favor, just like in fifty years we might not be reading many of the books that are standout and popular today. We move too fast and the bar for children when it comes to reading in many areas keeps getting set lower and lower. I'm an example of that. I didn't start to enjoy reading until I went to college, because it felt like it was more my choice. I'm probably rambling now so I should stop. But I will say that I'm enjoying these videos and it's nice to see other adults get me for enjoying and reading children's novels as an adult. They offer a lot of wonderful things to explore, no matter what age you become.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the very thoughtful comment. I'm not an educator, but I've been a volunteer in classrooms and I've discussed reading trends with teachers, librarians and my own kids over that period. Based on what I've learned, the trends are pretty disheartening, particularly among boys, who on average lag far behind girls in the amount and breadth of their reading. I've led a book club for middle grade readers (ages 10-12) for the past several years, but I had no control over the club's reading list, which was chosen by a group of school librarians in my school district. Twenty years ago, the club regularly read classic books written decades earlier. In recent years, though, older books have largely been abandoned and replaced in part by graphic novels and books that are the literary equivalent of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs (the favorite cereal of Calvin & Hobbes) in how they condition young readers to respond primarily to fast-paced plots that are heavy on spectacle and excitement and low on logic. I've been told that those books were chosen specifically to appeal to boy readers. We even recently read a graphic novel version of Anne of Green Gables rather than the original text in order to broaden its appeal to more readers. This was a low point for me, because the original is so much better than the graphic novel, and because the students missed out on an opportunity to gain appreciation for older classics. I'm certainly not saying older children's books are universally superior to newer ones. There are many wonderful children's books being written these days, just as there are plenty of older books that are better off forgotten today. My concern is mainly that in the rush to capitalize on the latest trends and to maximize profits, publishers are abandoning older books, and libraries and teachers are blindly following suit. What gets lost in that shift is a kind of shared, multigenerational cultural literacy. My hope with this channel is to generate enough interest in older titles to keep them in print, even if its only in ebook format, so that future generations at least have the opportunity to enjoy them.

I simply loved the mystery genre as a kid but since I'm from the end of the 90s I think they were less available when I was a young bookworm in the 2000s and 2010s. One of my favourite series as a kid was the Sally Lockhart series but I was one of the only people around me who even knew about it. I also read The New Cut Gang. I loved how smart I felt when I got close to solving the mysteries. The only reason I found and read those books were because of how much I loved His Dark Materials and I wanted to read everything from Philip Pullman. I also think The Golden Compass has some great mystery elements as well now that I think about it. Part of me wish that I had stumbled upon more back then because it's such a great exercise for a young child's brain!

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting! I’m not familiar with the New Cut Gang books, and now I want to check them out. Also, you make a great point about the mental exercise that mystery stories provide for young readers.

I don't know of many, but I remember one that was pretty good from when I was in middle school. Eoin Colfer has a standalone called Half Moon Investigations which is pretty great, pure kid-detective / kid "school services contractor" deal.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Good suggestion. I have that book, but I forgot about it when I was making the video.

Love this video. So well done on every level, research, perspective, presentation. This channel is superb. On subject, as a kid in the 60’s I delved more into comics than these types of books, but lately I’ve become very curious about them. I previously read one about a Mountie and his sled dog (can’t remember title/author/series at the moment) and the very first Nancy Drew (unedited version). I really enjoyed both, so will follow your great suggestions for more. Some really vintage, less renowned ones are free as Kindle books on Amazon and are a convenient way to sample before investing in hard copies.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! By any chance, was the Mountie story "Silver Chief, Dog of the North," by Jack O'Brien? That was one of my favorites as a kid, and also one of my mom's favorites when she was young. I'm a fan of the original Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries (before they were rewritten for younger audiences). The writing was more complex and the mysteries were better plotted in those. I think it's unfortunate that many of the older series for children remain out of print (even ebook editions) due to copyright protection. Part of my motivation for creating this channel was to generate reader interest in books like these that might lead publishers to bring them back into print, even if only in digital format.

@ProfessorEchoMedia

2 жыл бұрын

​@@thelibraryladder I would think it had to be SILVER CHIEF: DOG OF THE NORTH that I read. Not only does that sound familiar, but I'm guessing there might not be many of those adolescent series about Mountie's dogs? Offhand, I don't know that though. In any case, kudos to your Mom and to you for enjoying them as much as I did. Great minds! I will delve more into the uncensored Nancy Drew and Hardy Bros books and very much appreciate the recommendation. I'm sure you know that some of the tinkering done with them was for pretty reprehensible reasoning, such as having Nancy be less independent and more subservient to male characters. I heartily endorse your wanting to encourage publishers to dig deeper for inexpensive re-releases of these classics, even if it's just in digital form. Right now the Drew and Hardy books tend to be pricey as Kindle books because they are the big two that everyone has heard about (and then with Amazon's sideshow bots running the carnival, all the reviews are mixed up so that you really don't know if you're buying the uncut versions or not). However, there are many other types of these vintage young reader mysteries available as Kindle books for free or for 49-99 cents. A publisher called Wildside Press does a pretty good job of compiling many of them in volumes for less than a dollar each. Also Amazon has lots of public domain series uploaded by volunteers and those don't cost anything to download to your Kindle. I have many of the Rover Boys series and the Radio Boys, Tom Swift, et al. I keep checking for Silver Chief, but so far no luck yet. Keep the videos coming!

When i was a kid in the 80s my school library had the Three Investigators and Encyclopedia Brown books. Its how i got into Hitchcock movies. I was thinking about that series the other day but i couldn't remember the series name.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

The Three Investigators series was my introduction to Hitchcock as well. It was probably my favorite book series. I always imagined what it would be like to have a clubhouse hidden in a junkyard, accessible only by secret entrances, and protected by clever booby traps.

@kcd11d6

2 жыл бұрын

Enjoyed your treatise on this. I was fortunate enough to discover the Brains Benton Mystery series at age 11. They were so well written, entertaining and exciting to read, especially at that age. The created world of Crestwood and Brains Benton & Jimmy Carson was believable and Mr. Verral displayed obvious respect for his young readers. I mourned the end of the series. The fan base, I have discovered, lives on. Mr. Charles Morgan III, has written a continuation of the series which honors the original. I recently ordered the entire set (which is ongoing). He interviewed Charles Spain Verral’s son and received interesting information, including Verral’s hand drawn maps of the imaginary town of Crestwood. The original illustrator was found and agreed to also serve this revival (Mr. Shannon Stirnweis) . He recently passed away and Kirk Stirnweis is now collaborating. Mr. Morgan was inspired by these books and became a private investigator as a result. Although it is difficult to follow the original author, Mr. Morgan does a very nice job. His love for the characters shines through. There are 11 books, an anthology of short stories (and an adult Benton and Carson book which I have not ordered as yet. I hope youngsters today will rediscover the joy of reading this genre of mysteries.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

I had no idea the Brains Benton series had been resurrected. It was one of my absolute favorites as a kid, because the mystery elements in the books were challenging and plausible. They were well-crafted by the author, Charles Spain Verral. I just looked up the new books in the series written by Mr. Morgan, and the reviews look encouraging. Also, the cover artwork is terrific and very reminiscent of the original series and of the covers of the Three Investigators series from the same time period. It was an inspired choice to recruit the assistance of the original artist and his son. Thanks for sharing! I'll have to check them out.

I think the stratospheric rise of YA fantasy and dystopian science fiction has knocked the middle grade mystery off its prominent spot in the pop culture, but also-the classics are still selling. From my anecdotal experience working in a bookstore some years ago, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are perennials. The old ones sell but so do the various spinoffs and modern continuations.

@thelibraryladder

3 ай бұрын

Great points. Thanks for sharing that. I'm encouraged that some of the classics are still selling.

I think it's the harry potter effect. every writer who attends college or post-grad for writing wants to be the next Rowling, and content purchasers/publishers seem to lean into fantastical and voice-driven works over plot. it's a weird time where voice/character pieces derived from the western literary canon is intersecting with high-concept fantasy elements in franchise-driven, design-heavy ways... though I think young adult comics and graphic novels are surging, so perhaps that may be an area to (heh) investigate.

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Dan. I agree that the pressure to create franchise characters that can sustain a series appears to be sapping a lot of the plot depth in middle grade books. I also think it’s a lot easier to write fantastical stories that don’t need rigorous adherence to internal consistency and logic. Amorphous magical systems can excuse all kinds of logical lapses and deus ex machina plot resolutions that would otherwise ruin a traditional children’s mystery story. I’m unsure about the impact of graphic novels on the genre, mainly because I haven’t encountered many kids who read them regularly. Most of the children at my kids’ school prefer either to read traditional books or to play video games.

@sandyhausler5290

Жыл бұрын

It’s interesting that after she finished her Harry Potter novels, J.k. Rowling turned to the mystery genre, writing a series of mystery novels (not for kids) featuring private eye Cormoran Strike. She writes these books under a pen name, Robert Galbraith.

Among the vintage series shown, quite a few would not count as mysteries. Only a couple of the "Leo Edwards" books would, for example. The last two Poppy Ott books (Monkey's Paw and Hidden Dwarf) were specifically labeled as mysteries. Although Jerry Todd did have something called a Junior Jupiter Juvenile Detective card, the stories are more humor adventure books than they are mysteries. Among series book fans of the older books, I sometimes see an over emphasis on mysteries. Sometimes I will mention a series and a question may be raised as to whether it is a mystery. If it is not, the tiny spark of interest disappears in a puff of smoke. Among the older series are many other genre, including adventure, sports, school, career, and technology series. They may each have their own appeal. Since this is the "Library Ladder" and our host said he runs a book club, I suppose there is some connection with school and public libraries. About 90% of the vintage series shown were not welcome on library shelves among the librarians who were interested in impressing other librarians. Over a span of 125 or so years there have been many newspaper articles about one library or a network of them excluding the works of popular juvenile authors from Horatio Alger Jr. and "Oliver Optic" to Nancy Drew. Even at the turn of the present century there were libraries who would not carry Nancy Drew books. Since there is an obvious interest in the vintage series books, the Facebook group called Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books is a good discussion forum for a wide range of series, mostly mysteries. The group is selective in what it covers so take a close look at the description and banner image for examples of the series we talk about. I've been involved in the bookselling, collecting, and research area for about 35 years (since 1988). I have two conference presentations this year and a chapter about Trixie Belden (not mentioned in the video) in a book to be called Beyond Nancy Drew about mid-century girls' series in the works. Among my own projects are also a Series Book Encyclopedia, Stratemeyer Syndicate Ghostwriters, and a biography of Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930), the founder of the book packager responsible for several of the vintage series shown (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Dana Girls, Kay Tracey, Happy Hollisters plus many more mysteries and otherwise). More on the Stratemeyer Syndicate can be read at my Stratemeyer.org site. I'll be happy to correspond with people interested in this material individually or in the groups devoted to them. This is a good topic and one which the people interested in vintage series have noted for a long time. Current series include the continuations of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Bobbsey Twins. The Three Investigators are getting to be very hard to find and expensive. The Boxcar Children is a modern mystery series that continues the spirit of the original 19 books by Gertrude Chandler Warner and I thought it might be mentioned here. Smaller series are out there but they don't seem to get a lot of traction in the way they once did. There's a lot of copy-cat publishing. When a Harry Potter comes out, publishers and authors imitate fantasy. When Hunger Games is a best seller, the post-apocalyptic stories are the new mold. Twilight spawns paranormal. This seems to be the driving force that guides what publishers will buy and therefore what authors will write.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing! I've been actively collecting vintage series books for about 30 years, spanning most of the popular subgenres (mystery, adventure, science/tech, school, career). I have dozens of series outside of the mystery realm, including among others: Tom Swift(s), Great Marvel, Rocket Riders, Boy Inventors, Boy Engineers, Radio Boys, Wonder Island Boys, Adventure Boys, Rover Boys, Ted Scott, Andy Lane, Lone Ranger, Rick Brant, Tom Corbett, Mike Mars, Christopher Cool, Girl Scouts, Bobbsey Twins, Bunny Brown, Beverly Gray, Cherry Ames, Ruth Fielding, Linda Carlton, Marjorie Dean, etc. I plan to make videos featuring many of those series and others in the future to help give them more exposure. The Facebook group you mentioned sounds interesting. Alas, I don't use Facebook, so I'm sorry to miss out on the discussion there. I hope other viewers who read your post will seek it out.

Good to see you mention Brains Benton. My all-time favorite in the genre!

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

I loved the Brains Benton stories. The mysteries they solved were among the best-plotted in the juvenile mystery genre. However, my personal favorite series was The Three Investigators. I wanted a junkyard clubhouse/laboratory with secret entrances and booby traps like Jupiter Jones, and I think the first book, The Secret of Terror Castle, sparked my love of classic movies.

Another great video. I recognize that you would probably categorize them as hybrid mysteries, but we really enjoyed the Winterhouse series by Ben Guterson, and also the Greenglass House series by Kate Milford.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! My initial motivation for starting this channel was to give more attention to classic children's books. I've helped lead a book club for middle grade students at my kids' school for the past several years, and I was dismayed to discover how few of the students are even aware of terrific books published as recently as 10 or 20 years ago, let alone those published longer ago. While planning the channel, I decided to broaden my focus to make videos about classic books in other genres as well. My school book club read Greenglass House a few years ago, and I mostly enjoyed it (it had a great Agatha Christie feel to it, except for the fantastical plot twist). I haven't read the Winterhouse series, so thanks for the suggestion!

@MatthewKnepley

Жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder We have just finished The Thief Knot which is much more a pure mystery, where the fantastical elements do not drive the story, but just complement it. Many thanks for the recommendations! I now have a larger book order pending :)

My family would love more Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective, by Octavia Spencer, but I can understand that the author is busy with other projects.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

I wasn't aware that Ms. Spencer had written any children's books. Thanks for the suggestion!

I don't really know if this series really fits in mystery genre, but the Series of Unfortunate Events is a wonderful middle-grade/young adult books series about three orphaned siblings trying to escape their nefarioys relative that wants their custody in order to inherit the family's fortune. On each book the three of them end up on increasingly awful places trying to reveal Count Olaf who is always disguising as someone else. The prose is really clever for a childrens book. Highly reccomend them.

@thelibraryladder

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! Those Lemony Snicket books are great. My kids loved them. I'd put them more in the fantasy genre than mystery because the reader always knows who the villain is (Count Olaf).

@LucasFerreira-hy4sn

8 ай бұрын

@@thelibraryladder Thank you for sharing your library with all of us, I'm always finding authors and series I haven't heard before.

I thoroughly enjoy your posts. From this one I chose a shipload of books to send my grandkids for Christmas. Thank you.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Wonderful! Thanks! You've anticipated my next video, which I hope to post later this week (I'm running a little behind schedule due to some unforeseen events). It's focused on classic science fiction book recommendations for kids. Like the mystery genre, there are far fewer science fiction books being written for middle grade students these days. Authors and publishers have largely taken the science out of science fiction for kids. And many of the books published these days that are marketed as SF for kids are often just fantasy books dressed up to look like science fiction.

@rickcroucher

Жыл бұрын

That means another boatload o’ books heading to Portland. Hope your post is soon to make the Christmas rush postal wise. I look forward to it. Thank you, again.

Nancy Drew mysteries were the first chapter books I ever read. Then one fateful day my sister handed me Redwall and I never looked back! (So that's what happened to children's mysteries: fantasy killed them!)

@thelibraryladder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing! I think there's merit to the argument that fantasy killed children's mysteries. Redwall is awesome, but even it is being replaced on library shelves these days. The library in my kids' school removed the Redwall series from circulation because it wasn't widely read anymore and the school wanted to make room for newer books (many of which are high on adrenaline rush and spectacle and low on logic and quality prose).

@apebblemaster4570

2 жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder They're removing Redwall??? NOOOOO!!! (But at least Redwall will always have a home on my bookshelf!)

An interesting outlier to me in multiple ways, though not books, are the nancy drew series of video games. They are based on the older series of books(recurring characters are at least), published by a studio called HER interactive which focuses on games targeted toward girls(mostly just nancy drew and some smaller things), the games are a genre thats fell out of favor a long time ago called an adventure game(more specifically a graphical adventure game, which even in that context its a bit odd in that there are a number of puzzles that use self contained mechanics), and their largest demographic seems to be girls and their moms as a number of the comments and reviews have mentioned that they play/played them with their mother/daughter. Despite all these in which they dont really fit the broader trends theyre still making games in the series and while niche its a large enough niche to support themselves at least this long.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing that! I tried to interest my daughters in those Nancy Drew computer games when they were younger, but they preferred the books. :)

I'm actually working on a book series featuring a boy detective. Similar to the encyclopedia Brown series the brains Benton series and the Three investigators series.

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like a great combination! I hope it finds an eager audience of young readers (and a publisher willing to promote it to schools and libraries).

How about The Bobsie Twin mystery s

Enid Blyton wrote 21 famous five mystery stories also the five finder outers series and the secret 7 series. Maybe Enid wasn't as big in USA ashere in UK.

@thelibraryladder

11 ай бұрын

Alas, Blyton is/was not well-known here in the US. I introduced her stories to my kids when they were young, but I had to purchase the books from the UK. The Magic Faraway Tree was their favorite. Fortunately, in the past few years, boxed sets of Blyton's series have become available here in the US.

How about Trixie Belden mysterys, Tebow The Talking Dog, Meg Mysterys. Were did these book go?

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

Good question! I'm not familiar with either the Tee-bo or Meg Mackintosh mystery series. A quick internet search, though, led me to conclude that Tee-bo has been mostly lost to history, while Meg was recently brought back into print by a small press, although without the marketing and promotion support that a larger publisher would provide. Likewise, the first eight Trixie Belden books were brought back about 20 years ago, but as of today, only the Kindle editions are still in print. Many of the original Bobbsey Twins books from the early 1900s are in the public domain, and at least one small press has brought them back into print. However, most of them aren't mysteries. The series was heavily rewritten in the 1960s to update the settings and technologies and to incorporate more mystery elements into the stories. Unfortunately, those revised versions are still out of print.

@debchandler2503

Жыл бұрын

@@thelibraryladder Thank you for your help in finding these beloved books i remember and loved so well. Iam sure they will never be seen again.

@debchandler2503

Жыл бұрын

How about Roy Rogers ghosts of mystery Rancho

@thelibraryladder

Жыл бұрын

You can find a lot of books from the various series you mentioned for sale used on eBay. Here's the Roy Rogers book: www.ebay.com/itm/266080260630 The tragedy is that very few young readers will ever learn about the books and decide to look for them. Thus, a primary goal of my channel is to call attention to older and overlooked books that are at risk of being forgotten and to encourage readers to try them so that publishers will have an incentive to bring them back into print. I focus on a variety of genres, but children's books were my first motivation to start the channel. Thanks for watching and commenting!

@keeline

Жыл бұрын

Tee-Bo was a very short series so didn't get a lot of traction either in the hardcover or the paperback reprints. Meg had just 6 volumes in the early 1970s and some paperback reprints. The writer behind the pen name also worked on Trixie Belden for Whitman. Trixie Belden had 39 volumes though some of the last few are very hard to find. The first 6 were by Julie Campbell (Tatham) and the "Kathryn Kenny" titles represented the writing of about a dozen writers. The books were mainly published by Whitman and/or Golden Press (two imprints for the same company). The series stopped several times over its history. When Random House bought Golden Press around 2000, they tried to reprint the books with new covers (always risky because it upsets the nostalgia factor). They reprinted only the first 15 books (the ones available in the 1965 "deluxe" format as the collectors call it). They did not issue volumes 16-39 which were only available in smaller formats. Aside from commissioning new cover paintings, the effort involved in making these was somewhat minimal, reusing page images from the mid-1960s editions and not doing any typesetting or page layout. As with the Three Investigators, also with Random House with feeble reprint efforts that are now discontinued, the series is awaiting a renaissance if the publishers see sufficient demand. Meg and Trixie are some of the series discussed in the Facebook group Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books. Trixie Belden has at least one Facebook group devoted to it and there are annual conventions for Trixie as there are for Nancy Drew and the series like hers. There's a whole world of collectors, readers, and researchers of these books. I've been in the community for some 35 years now.

I know this video is like a year old but do you think you could make a video of a bookshelf collection showing all the books you have I’d love to watch it and then write down the boobs I’d like to get

@thelibraryladder

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! I'd love to do a comprehensive bookshelf tour, but it would take forever to film, edit and watch. I have around 10,000 books, of which close to 4,000 are children's books. I made a video tour of just one bookcase of vintage children's books last year, and it was more than 40 minutes long. However, I do plan to feature more of my children's book collection in the future, since it was my original motivation for creating this channel.

No mention of Famous Five? Also, have you read The Mysterious Benedict Society? Our kids enjoyed those

@thelibraryladder

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for your questions. Enid Blyton was certainly deserving of a mention. In the video, I focused primarily on the US children's book market, which for many decades largely ignored Ms. Blyton's book series in favor of home-grown ones. She's relatively unknown here in the US, although many of her books began getting new US editions around 20 years ago. I'm a fan of the Mysterious Benedict Society series, but I think of those books primarily as fantasy rather than mystery stories, which is why I didn't mention them.

@NevsBookChannel

9 ай бұрын

@@thelibraryladder ah yes, they are somewhat fantastical. Thanks Bridger. Another unrelated question. Have you unlisted a bunch of your videos? I’ve started going through all your videos from your oldest onwards and I seem to recall watching some that aren’t there any more?

@thelibraryladder

9 ай бұрын

All of my videos are still available here. About a year ago, I unlisted eight of my earliest videos (a series of short, three-minute teasers showing selections of books from different parts of my collection), but they're still visible in the playlists section of my channel. Those videos were my first attempts at making content for the channel (and it shows). I've kept them as the intros to each of the genre playlists. I haven't unlisted any of my substantive videos. (It's just taken me longer than I'd prefer to make new ones in recent months.)

Any good mystery books for a second grader?

@thelibraryladder

10 ай бұрын

I'm not too familiar with current offerings for that age group, but if your second grader is a good reader, they might like some books aimed slightly older (3rd grade and up). Some classics include: - the Encyclopedia Brown stories by Donald J. Sobol; - the Basil of Baker Street books by Eve Titus (the inspiration for the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective); - the Boxcar Children mysteries by Gertrude Chandler Warner; - the Find-Outers series by Enid Blyton; - The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper, by Jean Van Leeuwen; - The Cheshire Cheese Cat, by Carmen Agra Deedy Some of those are out of print, but they're still readily available on the used book market.