Hardy Boys Clue Book 15 – The Garden Plot

Franklin W Dixon's The Garden Plot is a sunny, silly mystery for 7 year olds about a street full of vegetable gardens and one very hungry woodchuck.

What happens

Nearly every house on the Hardys' road has dug up its front lawn for a contest. The idea is to grow food instead of grass, and the judges are coming to the block party in a few days.

Frank is taking it very seriously. Joe, who is eight, mostly eats the entries (flower petals included). Who knew nasturtiums were a snack?

Across the street, Vic has a trellis dripping with cucumbers. Next door to him, Audrika has twelve-foot sunflowers. The two of them are fierce rivals, and it's very funny watching them trade insults about each other's peppers and passionflowers.

Then comes a scream at sunrise. Half of Vic's cucumbers have been wrecked overnight! The obvious suspect is Woody, a pudgy woodchuck that Joe has been feeding with old fruit. But the boys soon find clues that don't quite add up.

This is book fifteen of the Hardy Boys Clue Books, and it works perfectly well on its own. The boys have their clue book, their Five Ws and a detective dad whose job runs in the family.

It's properly funny. A girl zooms round selling pickles from a cart shaped like a giant pickle. There are puns everywhere (Frank calls one excuse "a credible edible alibi"). And the boys race across the road in their pyjamas more than once.

There are lots of fun garden facts tucked in, too. Why woodchucks are also called groundhogs. Why you shouldn't nibble a plant unless you're sure. How a farmer's leftover fruit can be put to good use instead of going in the bin.

Before the answer comes, the story pauses and invites your reader to write down who they think did it. It's a fun little challenge for a child who likes to be one step ahead.

What to read next

If they like Frank and Joe at this age, try Trouble at the Arcade, the first in a separate series about the same two brothers, where there's trouble at the local arcade just before a video game tournament.