Rating: 
Summary: Charmingly antiquated
Review: Frank and Joe Hardy are two swell and keen fellows.
When I was nine, this was one of the only books that I ever put down in my life. When I picked it back up at 12 years of age, I liked it so much I read about sixty other books in the series.
This series lacks a lot of things when measured up against its competitors. It has no magic, very little humor (and even less funny humor), and the characters all sound like they walked out of Pleasantville. The Hardys are so square they make the Scooby Doo gang look like P. Diddy's posse. The world of the Hardy boys is free from dysfunction; they're never even tempted to do anything immoral, and a vast gulf separates them from any modern child who might try reading them.
Despite all this, the series has a certain charm to it. The gee whizzes and oh gollies are funny without meaning to be, and the earnestness with which the Hardys set out to solve mysteries is refreshing in its simplicity. Each mystery is presented in such a way that the reader can have fun trying to second-guess the characters, and the methods that they use to solve the case should appeal to the logic-minded reader.
This book is fairly short and easy to read. I suggest that you give it a shot, because if it appeals to you, you'll have hundreds of hours of enjoyment ahead of you.
Rating: 
Summary: Shades of My Misspent Youth
Review: Hopefully, the reader will not mind if I wax nostalgic for a paragraph, but The Hardy Boys were an important part of my childhood. I got one book on the holidays and one for my birthday for some 5 years straight, and these were my entire personal library for some time. I owe all the thousands of books I have come to enjoy to a royal elephant, a detective pig, and Frank and Joe, the two inquisitive sons of Fenton Hardy. Now it is forty-some years later, and the temptation to see if I could go back again is simply too strong.'The Tower Treasure' is the very first, in which Frank and Joe start out trying to track down a stolen car for a friend, and suddenly find themselves embroiled in a jewel theft at the Tower Mansion. The father of another of their friends is a suspect, and the boys join with their father in the effort to bring the right man to justice. What makes these books work is that, while the plots are not particularly convolute, the books are peopled with many delightful characters and narrative. Adventures are had, wonderful secrets are divulged, the bad are punished and the good rewarded. In this day and age of equivocal messages, the clean, straightforward approach to life of Frank and Joe Hardy is like a breath of fresh air. I found the book quite engaging, even after all these years. I was quite envious of the Hardys, who even had their own motorcycles, and I find flickers of the same feelings even today. After all, I still don't have a motorcycle. I wish I could have grown up solving mysteries and adventuring with my sibling and father, but books like 'The Tower Treasure' turned out to be the next think. I learned a lot from Frank and Joe, and I think those values are still worth promoting.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Treasure!
Review: I chose Tower Treasure because my teacher recommended it because I told her I was interested in mystery books,and it was a good choice. This book is about two teenage boys who want to be detctives ,like their father.They are out to solve a mystery of stolen jewels.They want to solve it soon to clear their friends dad, who is suspected of the robbery.During there journey they find many clues.Will they solve it?Read it to find out the amazing ending. I would recommend
Rating:
Summary: Adventure books for kids
Review: I read these books as a kid, they were written starting from the nineteen twenties. Our twelve year son old enjoys them now, and I expect that our eight year old will enjoy them in the future. They're a good alternative to Harry Potter, where magic and power over grownups plays the dominant role (the Hardy Boys more or less compete in skill with their father as detectives, although parents rarely appear in the stories). The Carolyn Keene mystery stories (Nancy Drew) are also equally good for both boys and girls, and could have been written by the same author! Even better, if you can find them: Ellery Queen Jr.'s mysteries (The Brown Fox Mystery, The Red Chipmunk Mystery, and three others). How I got onto these books: my mother ordered and sold them from our office equipment business in a small Kentucky town in the fifties.
Rating:
Summary: Great Mystery Starter!
Review: I remember the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew from my grade school days as the books I took out of the library over and over again. My 7 year old is a great reader. For his 8th Birthday I decided to spend part of his gift money on the Starter Set. We read The Tower Treasure together mostly, at least four chapters he read on his own, and in three days of his continual prompting, the mystery was solved. Great Book! Great Introduction into mystery novels for his age! The best benefit is that right away, he picked up the next book, The House On The Cliff and began reading it all by himself. In two hours he had read 8 chapters and couldn't wait until the next day to read some more. Though many words used are not the vocabulary of an 8 year old. With the first book, we gave him a yellow highlighter to signal out any words he didn't understand so that we can discuss them during the next days home-schooling session. The result was an instant vocabulary increase. Of course, no one talks or writes the way this book is formatted. I mean, the families actually speak nicely to one another (like in our family) and good children's authors and story's are rare (my opinion) but there is no greater benefit than having a good reader who still likes the Berenstain Bears and is engrossed in a non-picture book mystery his parents can trust (though we'll read them too, when he lets us. lol)
Rating:
Summary: The book that began a dynasty!
Review: Kudos to Applewood books for re-issuing this original text Hardy Boys book that started a line- up of great stories for youth that are still being published today. Most younger baby-boomers will not remember this story in its original form, as the text was substantially revised in the latter 1950's. This earlier, more hearty (no pun intended) story makes the revision pale by comparison. Applewood's reissue of Tower Treasure puts the series in its proper context. This story is truly the reader's introduction to Frank and Joe Hardy, and their mysteries. More than just nostalgia, this book is fun to read. If you read it to your children, you may have to put some of it in proper historical context, but that's part of the fun. I have found all of the original-text stories much more entertaining and substantial than the revised editions. Applewood has released six original-text Hardy's so far. I own them all, and highly recommend each one. In fact, I plan to purchase any of the original text Hardy stories Applewood will issue.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Mystery Book
Review: The Hardy Boys Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon is about two teenage brothers trying to figure out who stole friend Chet Morgan's car.
The boys nemes are Frank And Joe Hardy. They are the main characters in this story. They go to Bayport high school. The story takes place in the 50's I would say by the way the boys dress and the way the author explains the story.
The story starts out when the boys find out that their friends car ''the queen''has been stolen. The story turns into a much bigger mystery when they find out that the thief has robbed the Tower Mansion. Can the boys find the thiefor will he roam free?
I thought this book was very good. I can't wait to read the others. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good old fashioned mystery book.
-Jeff Gessner
Rating:
Summary: Start of a Legacy
Review: The Series: In 1927, Franklin W. Dixon launched the "Hardy Boys" books, a series of books telling of the exploits of Frank and Joe Hardy, the sons of a big-city detective. The Hardy boys lived out in the country and, with their friends, loved following in their father's sleuthing footsteps. The result was a set of wonderful amateur detective stories that I read as fast I could find when I was a kid. The Hardy Boys helped launch me on my lifelong reading binge. This book: This was the first of the Hardy Boys mysteries. We get introduced to all the characters and are quickly thrown into a mystery involving a dying man's confession and buried treasure. Well-written, fast-paced, and just plain likable, this is a great book-gift for the young reader.
Rating:
Summary: Start of a Legacy
Review: The Series: In 1927, Franklin W. Dixon launched the "Hardy Boys" books, a series of books telling of the exploits of Frank and Joe Hardy, the sons of a big-city detective. The Hardy boys lived out in the country and, with their friends, loved following in their father's sleuthing footsteps. The result was a set of wonderful amateur detective stories that I read as fast I could find when I was a kid. The Hardy Boys helped launch me on my lifelong reading binge. This book: This was the first of the Hardy Boys mysteries. We get introduced to all the characters and are quickly thrown into a mystery involving a dying man's confession and buried treasure. Well-written, fast-paced, and just plain likable, this is a great book-gift for the young reader.
Rating:
Summary: Tower Treasure, great book
Review: This review is of the 1959 Revised Version of "The Tower Treasure". The first 38 titles in the series were revised over the course of 15 years (some with minor changes, others were completely re-written). "The Tower Treasure" is the first Hardy Boys mystery. Starting out with Frank and Joe trying to track down the thief who stole the beloved yellow "hot rod" of their friend Chet Morton, the Hardy brothers find themselves in the midst of their first real mystery to investigate. The brothers discover the disguise the thief must have used. This leads them to seek help from their father, the famous investigator Fenton Hardy. Fenton and the boys suspect that there may be a connection to the recent robbery at the Tower mansion where the only suspect is the father of their friend, Slim. Neither Frank nor Joe believes that Slim's father could have possibly committed the crime and they are committed to clear his name before Slim's family is ruined. I remember when I was much younger and was the age of the target audience of this novel. I could not get enough of the Hardy Boys and read each of the books several times over. Reading them a decade and a half later, I can still easily understand my obsession with the stories. "The Tower Treasure" is fast paced, interesting, and has a mystery that is begging to be solved (though this is one that can't necessarily be solved by the reader before the brothers solve it). It is fun to read through the Hardy Boys, and this is a good, clean, young adult adventure story (the series is more adventure than young adult). I can only hope that when I have children that they will enjoy the Hardy Boys as much as I did. -Joe Sherry
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