Violating a rule here

 So, normally I don't blog or list of good reads when I read something that qualifies as Intermediate Readings, since those reviews are generally better left to teachers teaching kids in the age range. However, after running across The Hardy Boys Ghost Stories while going through boxes in the basement, I'm going to go ahead and blog and log it, since I've actually had a lot of fun rereading this slim volume. 

Amazon has a better pic, but this is my copy.

 So I've probably owned this since second grade, and it remains in decent condition. (I have a few other volumes out of this particular set of adventures; you can click the tags on this to see the overly long essay I wrote about their history.) However, what surprised me on rereading was how well the stories in here have held up.

 That has nothing to do with the accidental homoeroticism involving Joe Hardy at all.

We start with "The Walking Scarecrow", which gave me nightmares as a kid. Boys are on their way home from hiking, break down, decided to walk to the farmhouse they saw to use the phone, but feel like the scarecrow warned them away from the house. Seriously, while not a ghost per se, the Scarecrow seems to be doing its best to drag Joe and Frank out the farmhouse. Which, at the end, we find out is because lightning strikes the house as they return from a wild goose chase and the house burns down. 

Next is "Mystery of the Voodoo Gold", in which Frank and Joe get told by a Fortune Teller in Underground Atlanta not to do a few things, which they promptly do, which leads to nearly drowning in a root cellar where Simbo, a voodoo protection doll, watches over his master's treasure. 

Then comes what it likely my favorite of all of them, "The Disappearance of Flaming Rock". Joe and Frank are in Arizona, near a town that vanished off the face of the Earth. Literally. Seems a prospector his Flaming Rock, and found the town deserted, but things like dinner on the stove still cooking, and a swinging light in the church bell tower. When people went to look, they found the town gone, as if it never existed. Frank and Joe drive up, and guess what they find? Seems the town hanged the local Apaches, so the Great Spirit cursed Flaming Rock and all its inhabitants to wander the spirit world for all eternity homeless. 

Fourth story is "The Phantom Ship", wherein Frank and Joe's fishing boat dies and they get taken aboard an 18th Century Whaler. Inhabited by 18th Century Crewman. Who think the modern boys are insane, and somehow manage to get everyone really confused as to where the are. This is also an old favorite, since honestly, the ghost ship should have made them walk the plank for mutiny.

Then comes the illustration from the front cover, "The Haunted Castle", where Frank and Joe wind up in a Haunted Castle in Scotland. Their appearance winds up fulfilling a prophecy, which sets the ghost free of a witch's curse. 

We finish with "The Mystery of Room 12", in which Joe is haunted by the ghost of a sailor's son. Joe finally gets the boys flute back to him, and resolves the ghost's fetter. 

Now, while all of this is really really improbable, not the least of which is how two high school kids can be all over the globe for this stuff to happen (a problem with the entire series, that you don't particularly think about when you're in the age range), it's still fun reading, with more than a little learning hidden in the bare bones stories. (You get an age appropriate lesson in whaling, information on Widow's Walks, exactly how poorly settlers treated Native Americans, why you listen to the gypsy lady with the crystal ball.) Even nearing 50 though, this scratched a nostalgia itch I was unaware I had, and brought back some childhood wonder that the series of this era inspired in me. 

But Seriously, I blame Joe Hardy illustrations for much of my sexual awakenings.