Hardy Boys Clue Book 01 – The Video Game Bandit

Franklin W Dixon's The Video Game Bandit is a mystery for 7 year olds in which the Hardy brothers chase one very wanted games console around a backyard party.

What happens

Frank and Joe's baseball team, the Bayport Bandits, needs money for a trip to Florida. So there's a big auction at their friend Ellie's house, with a fashion show, a photo booth and trays of tiny hot dogs.

The star prize is a ZCross5000. Every kid in town wants one and the shops have sold out. Then, just as the bidding is about to start, it vanishes from the den.

The brothers get straight to work. Joe pulls out his notebook and writes the Five Ws at the top of the page (Who? What? Where? When? Why?). Their dad is a private investigator and he's taught them to start every case that way.

What follows is proper detective work, sized for younger readers. There's a torn instruction booklet and a girl with a pink streak in her hair who was seen poking around near the prizes. Then there are two kitchen helpers who can't agree on a single thing about the kids they saw running off. One says T-shirts, the other says sweatshirts. Who's right? Joe just writes both down, which is exactly what real witnesses are like.

The clues pile up in a way your reader can follow. A chewed box turns up behind the sofa. A wallet sits in a bike basket in the garage. There's even a stakeout, with the boys squashed under a workbench waiting for someone to come back (Joe nods off, of course).

Near the end the story stops and hands the case over. Your reader is asked to list the suspects, write down how they think the console disappeared and pick out the clues that helped. Then they can turn the page and see if they were right.

That pause is what makes it. It's a mystery they get to solve, not just read, and there's something very satisfying about getting there before Frank and Joe do.

It's friendly, too. Nobody here is really scary, and the whole thing plays out in one afternoon at a party.

What to read next

If they're hooked on the Bandits, The Missing Playbook is the second book in the series. This time the team's brand-new playbook disappears right before the first big game of the season.