Hardy Boys Clue Book 03 – Water-Ski Wipeout

Franklin W Dixon's Water-Ski Wipeout is the third Hardy Boys Clue Book, a lakeside mystery for 7 year olds about a pair of shiny new water skis that vanish overnight.

What happens

Joe Hardy is eight and he's been waiting all winter for this. His parents gave him his very own water skis for Christmas, and a weekend away at Lake Poketoe with school is where he's going to try them out. Half the third and fourth grade want lessons. His big brother Frank is nine and wants lessons too.

On the bus, Joe accidentally clonks the class bully, Adam Ackerman, on the head with the skis. "You're going to pay for that, Hardy." That night Joe leaves the skis in the storage shed behind the lodge. The next morning they're gone.

So the boat goes out without him. Joe is sure it was Adam (case closed, as far as he's concerned). Frank isn't so sure. It seems too obvious, and their dad, a private detective, has taught them it's never that simple.

That's the nice thing about these books. The brothers work it out properly, the way their dad showed them. Joe gets his notebook out and writes down the five Ws. Who, what, when, where and why? Then they go looking for clues. There's a crumpled yellow towel on the shed floor with four letters on it that mean nothing to anyone yet. There are drag marks in the dirt heading down to the dock. And there's a witness who looked out of a bathroom window after lights-out.

Would your reader have spotted what the towel meant before Joe did? Just before the answer, the book stops and asks them to list their own suspects and the clues that helped. They can grab a piece of paper or just turn the page.

It reads fast. Lots of chapters end on a question. You can also feel how much Joe wants his skis back, and that makes the case matter. There's no danger here beyond a warning about bears and rattlesnakes, so it suits a young reader who likes a puzzle without anything too scary.

Mr Morton's famous smoked ribs, bunk beds and a speedboat on the lake make it a very outdoorsy one too.

What to read next

If your reader wants to go back to where the brothers' casebook began, try The Video Game Bandit, the first Clue Book. It's the lost video game Frank and Joe mention here, and it starts at a fundraiser for their baseball team.