Thinking back to long ago when I was a pre-teen boy I can identify a series of books that caught my attention. These wonderfully crafted stories combined many of the ideas that attract a young boy's attention: adventure, intrigue, mystery as well as exciting backgrounds and locales. These books were staples of choice for my friends and me when we visited out elementary school library.

The Hardy Boy mysteries were written beginning in 1926, but were revived and repackaged within the 1970s to the delight of boys around the world. These books detailed the adventures of two teenage boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, sons of a famous New York City detective. The boys followed in the footsteps of their famous father, solving crimes in their series of books.

Keep in mind this is before the famous television show that starred Shaun Cassidy, teen king of swooning females during the 1970's as well as Parker Stevenson a lesser known star of the 1970's pop culture scene. This gave the Hardy boys a three-dimensional presence, which may have increased the interest as the series was short-lived.

Boys were able to improve their reading ability within the pages of this exciting portrayal of regular kids who managed to continually find adventures doing what they watched their father do. We all know little boys idolize their father, so there was a basic truth within this genre that appealed to young boys.

There were other titles that provided the same joy, one of which was the series by Gertrude Chandler Wilder, the Boxcar Children. This series concerns a group of children who are orphaned and estranged from their grandfather by a mistaken felling that they are unwanted. The children find adventure as they try to exist independently of adult help.

Once again an adventure for young boys captured my attention as I dived into the original nineteen titles. These characters were as real to me as my brother or friends at school as I became friends with the Alden children and invested myself in their lives.

This is something young children these days need desperately that television may not consistently provide. Reading makes you invest yourself as you open your mind and define characters according to the descriptions and pieces of personality weaved in by the author. To me, these two series accomplished that and made my preteen years richer.

Learn more about this author, Joe Owens.
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