Children's Vintage Adventure and Mystery Books

[Black Dahlia]

Hi everyone,

I've searched the forums, and couldn't find a thread on this topic. So thought I'd be the first to start it!

I was recently talking with a fellow lounger *waves* about collecting/reading vintage children's books. I myself collect the Judy Bolton series, Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, Beverly Grey, Connie Blair...etc. What about you? What's your favourite series?

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[Dan'l]

*Waves back to BD*

I grew up reading the Hardy Boys mysteries. My grandmother gave me several that she had bought for my dad and uncle in the 50's. I think they may still be packed away at my parents house, I hope that's where there at, otherwise :eeek:
I seem to recall when grandma gave them to me she said something along the lines of "they are good books for young boys to read so that they might learn right and wrong and how young boys should behave." Grandma always had a suttle way of teaching those life leasons without "getting in your face and finger pointing,"and yet she was always very up front

 

[Black Dahlia]

Hi Dan'l,

If you can't find them, at least the HB series are easy to find at yard sales and such. The older, original series (30s/40s) with the paper covers are harder to locate, but still possible to find.

*LOL* Did the series teach you how to behave?
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[LizzieMaine]

I loved the Polly Brewster series, which sent its small-town protagonist around the world to various exotic locations -- Polly In New York, Polly In Europe, Polly In Alaska, Polly In Egypt, etc.

For obvious reasons I'm also a big fan of the Radio Girls series.

 

[Dan'l]

*LOL* Did the series teach you how to behave?
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Not really, I did get some ideas on how not to get caught though
Grandma tried...

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

I was partial to Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene and I still remember the first of the series: The Secret Of The Old Clock. Memory fades but didn't she drive a blue coupe?

 

[Black Dahlia]

I was partial to Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene and I still remember the first of the series: The Secret Of The Old Clock. Memory fades but didn't she drive a blue coupe?

Hi there.
Yes, ND drove a blue coupe/roadster. It featured predominantly in the series. ;0 The entire ND series was ghostwritten leading to several inconsistencies, but they always got the blue coupe in there!

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[Black Dahlia]

Not really, I did get some ideas on how not to get caught though
Grandma tried...

I myself have learned a lot about how to conduct myself, whilst solving a mystery! ;0

I loved the Polly Brewster series, which sent its small-town protagonist around the world to various exotic locations -- Polly In New York, Polly In Europe, Polly In Alaska, Polly In Egypt, etc.

For obvious reasons I'm also a big fan of the Radio Girls series.

I'm not familiar with the Polly Brewster series or Radio Girls! I'll have to look them up.

I also had some Vicki Barr stories, Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, Kay Tracey, etc.
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[Dan'l]

My dad had a collection of Mark Twain novels and I didn't read them all but I did enjoy the ones I did read; A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur was one of my favorites. I also read Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and there was at least one other that I can't remember right now. I want to say it had to do with a river boat (Go figure huh, Mark Twain)

 

[Black Dahlia]

I really love the books by John Bellairs. Oddly, I didn't read them as a child but got into them many years after. I'm still trying to collect them all. I recommend 'The House with a Clock in its Walls' (1973).

Also, you can't go wrong with the amazing Edward Gorey (love him) illustrations in the books! I collect his art.
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[Dan'l]

Also, you can't go wrong with the amazing Edward Gorey (love him) illustrations in the books! I collect his art.
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I love his illustrations. I have a book of short horror stories that he did the cover for, and all other illustrations of his that I've seen have that same "feel" to them.

 

[Black Dahlia]

I love his illustrations. I have a book of short horror stories that he did the cover for, and all other illustrations of his that I've seen have that same "feel" to them.

I have most of the Bellairs series and some of Gorey's own books and calendars. Amazing stuff! They do have a 'feel' to them, that's for certain. Many have copied his style, but none even compare.
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[radiodazed]

I’ve recently began collecting adventure books written by John Henry Goldfrap, who wrote under several different pseudonyms. Currently working on the Ocean Wireless Boys series and The Boy Aviators series. What makes them really valuable for me, is when they have hand written inscriptions - books given as gifts and awards “for perfect attendance”. They give the book a human quality and by reading them, I feel like I breathe life back into them.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Oh, I did my time with the Hardy Boys too. But I always preferred the Whitman series of "adventure novels for young readers" based on TV Westerns, like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, Rin Tin Tin (the 1950s series), Bat Masterson, Have Gun Will Travel, and others.

Not long ago I scooped up some of the RR novels on eBay. One is my all-time favorite, "Ghost of Mystery Rancho," from 1950. The writing style is stagey and there are holes in the plot large enough to ride Trigger through. But the narrative drive is great; and the solid mystery holds up, with the identity of the bandit villain (he wears a skull mask and skeleton costume) concealed until the end -- it turns out to be a least-likely person, a la Agatha Christie.

I went straight from those to James Bond, so I skipped a lot of the "young people's" adventure series.

 

[Black Dahlia]

Oh, I did my time with the Hardy Boys too. But I always preferred the Whitman series of "adventure novels for young readers" based on TV Westerns, like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, Rin Tin Tin (the 1950s series), Bat Masterson, Have Gun Will Travel, and others.

Not long ago I scooped up some of the RR novels on eBay. One is my all-time favorite, "Ghost of Mystery Rancho," from 1950. The writing style is stagey and there are holes in the plot large enough to ride Trigger through. But the narrative drive is great; and the solid mystery holds up, with the identity of the bandit villain (he wears a skull mask and skeleton costume) concealed until the end -- it turns out to be a least-likely person, a la Agatha Christie.

I went straight from those to James Bond, so I skipped a lot of the "young people's" adventure series.

Benzadmiral, I have some of those books also, very collectible! I have a Rin Tin Tin and a few others. Not many of the Western ones though. I have lots of other books based on TV shoes too, like Bewitched and the Munsters. ;0

"Ghost of Mystery Rancho"sounds right up my alley! I'll have to check it out!
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[Spw4922]

When I was wee I used to spend my hard earned quarters on the Tom Swift series. The Victor Appleton (a catch all pen name...I believe most of the children's series of that time had multiple authors...Frank Dixon for the Hardy boys...can't remember the others.) ones from the teens to the 30's. Pretty much always titled "Tom Swift and his Electric something".

I started up buying them again in the early oughts but they were very expensive at that (and this) point. I wanted to read them, not have them as collectibles and was very happy to find many had fallen into the PD and could be downloaded from Project Guttenburg.

Here is the Link!!

Notice Tom's snappy wardrobe!

They are horribly Non-PC which makes them all the more fun.

 

[Almost Vintage]

I loved (and own most of) The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. I also have some Trixie Beldon.

Another book I loved as a child was The Box Car Children. I regularly checked it out of my school library. I recently found out that there is a whole series of them, but my school just had that first one.

 

[Dan'l]

Spw4922, I had forgotten about Tom Swift. I remember coming across only one as I was growing up and it was a pretty fun read as I recall.

 

[Isis]

Me I read and re-read my father's collection of Richmal Crompton's Just William-books.

 

[topango]

Most of all Scott Odell's book fall in to adventure, If you attended elementary school out west, you may remember "Island of the blue dolphins"