Move over Secret Files, there’s a new series coming in 2016 entitled Hardy Boys Clue 
Book! Hope it’ll be good. 🙂 Here are some of the details:
Title: #1 The Video Game Bandit
Illustrated by: Matt David
Release Date: 19th of April 2016
Number of Pages: 96
Available Formats: Paperback/eBook/hardcover
Update: Synopsis from Simon and Schuster:
Frank and Joe are on a mission to track down a thief in the first book in an all-new, interactive Hardy Boys chapter book mystery series. Includes space for readers to jot down their own ideas and solutions to the case!
Bayport Elementary is throwing a fundraiser so they can go on an end-of-the-year trip. Ellie Freeman’s parents have volunteered their house for the event, and neighbors have donated all sorts of prizes to be raffled off including movie tickets and gift certificates to Fun World. But the best prize of all is a brand-new ZCross50000, a video game system that every kid has been drooling over.
But sometime during the event, the ZCross goes missing. Can Frank and Joe figure out who took the prize before it’s too late to save the big school trip?
Title: #2 The Missing Playbook
Illustrated by: Matt David
Release Date: 19th of April 2016
Available Formats: Paperback/eBook/hardcover
Number of Pages: 96
Update: Synopsis from Simon and Schuster:
Frank and Joe try to hit a home run by figuring out what happened to the Bayport Bandits’ playbook before the first big baseball game in the second book in an all-new, interactive Hardy Boys chapter book mystery series. Includes space for readers to jot down their own ideas and solutions to the case!
Frank and Joe and the rest of their Bayport Bandits teammates can’t wait for Little League to start! Everyone is celebrating the beginning of the season at Speedy Zermino’s house. While they’re all together, Coach Quinn shows off the Bandit’s new playbook that contains all of the new strategies and plays that will help them to a winning season.
The next day at practice, Coach Quinn realizes the all-important playbook has gone missing! With their teammates counting on them to get the book back, Frank and Joe must take a swing at cracking this case…or their season will be over before it even begins.
The Nancy Drew Clue Book series coming in July replaces the Nancy Drew Clue Crew series. The first two titles, Pool Party Puzzler and Last Lemonade Standing, will be available on the 7th of July. Four titles have been announced so far in the new series. I really liked the Clue Crew series title because it gives cred to George and Bess and it rhymes. 😎
Like the Secret Files and Clue Crew, the price (US) will be 5.99 paperback/ebook. Unlike the Secret Files and Clue Crew, it says at the Simon and Schuster site that they’ll be available in hardcover, too.
So, whatcha think? Interested in the Hardy Boys Clue Book series or Nancy Drew Clue Book series? Vote on the poll! 🙂
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Hardy and Drew Mysteries 
Really? Perhaps they got new writers – or perhaps are going back to the author who wrote the best Secret Files book, Mystery Map? That would be wonderful! 😀 I look forward to seeing what they do with this series; I hope they write the characters in character!!
Does it strike anyone else as odd that books one and two of this “new” series have basically the same themes as books one and two of The Secret Files? I believe that several of The Secret Files were written off of several of The Clues Brothers books (for example: Medieval Upheaval was very similar to King for a Day). The question is, will this “new” series truly be new stories, or just regurgitations of the previous two series? If so, other than the marketing reasons (labeling something “new and improved”, give it a new title and new artwork in order to sell to unsuspecting shoppers – who will basically be buying the same story), it would appear that the only reason they start a “new” series is because they have a limited supply of stories. I would suggest that they (the publisher or the author(s) – whoever is making this monotonous decision) either stop insisting on rewriting the same plots or get an author with some real Hardy knowledge and interesting story ideas. I nominate Ann. 🙂 😎
The little Nancy books (Notebooks, Clue Crew) haven’t held my interest. The only two I read and liked (overall) was the Notebook title Lemonade Raid and Clue Crew book title Ticket Trouble. I never give up, thus I plan to give the Clue Book series a try (yes, I noticed that book one is about lemonade and an amusement park, too, but if it is written well, I can accept repeated themes 😉 ). 🙂 Callie
Surprised, huh? Yep, that’d be cool. 😀 I’d like that as well! 😎
Yep, a number of similarities, for sure. Lol, great question, Callie! 😛 😆 Aw, thanks for the nomination! 🙂
That’s important to never give up, and I know that you don’t. 😎 I agree, if a mystery is written well they can have similar themes and not be exactly the same. But like you said about, it wouldn’t be right if they are only slight variations of the same basic plots. You can have a whole lot of stories all with an amusement park theme, sport, arson, theft, etc., and they not be duplicates. Just if they’re too close to being identical, then that can be annoying.
Hey, I’ve added the synopsis for both HB books today. You can see more similarities with the Secret Files – Bayport Bandits Coach Quinn and Speedy (although a spelling difference in the last name with Zermino in the synopsis and Zermeno in the Secret Files.)
🙂
🙂 You are welcome, Ann; your writing is the kind of quality readers hope for. 🙂
True. 🙂
Yes, I see what you are saying. The first book might be okay, but the second one (with the “all-important playbook”) seems profusely irrelevant and rather pathetic, I think. For example: if the playbook is so mandatory to a successful season, how could it get lost — and that fact not noticed until the next day?!?
Another example: how qualified is this coach? The reason I ask: the story implies they are hopeless and incompetent without the playbook! 🙄 Cannot the coach remember any of it, come up with a new game plan or check their backup copy of the playbook? If it was written on paper, it most likely would not have been written perfectly from start to finish – they would have rough drafts of it and notes. If it was done on computer it would be saved on there or on a flash drive or disc or some other choice of file backup. In real baseball (or any other sport) you have to have a plan, but you also must be flexible, able to compensate for unexpected occurrences – like injury, weather, equipment, missing playbooks…
It should be interesting to see the mystery of book one solved; I like the looks of it. 🙂 Callie
Thank you so much, Callie – that’s totally true of your writing! 🙂
🙂
You make good sense. Kinda seems like a non-mystery plot almost. I don’t think I’d want Coach Quinn for a coach.
Me, too! 🙂
Thank you, Ann. 🙂 Callie
🙂
I plan to give the Hardy Boys series a try. 🙂
Cool. 🙂 I just updated the post with the synopsis of both volumes. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂 I’ll want to get the paperback of the first one. I see the similarities and differences between the Clue books and Secret Files. Hope they’re good! 🙂 8)
No problem, Hardy Sleuth! 🙂 Yep, I’d like to get the paperback or maybe the ebook of The Video Game Bandit. It does seem like a continuation of the Secret Files, with a different illustrator, Matt David instead of Scott Burroughs, and some space for notes. 🙂
I’m willing to give any decent book a try. 🙂 Maybe they’ll be good & fun to read. 😀 Thanks for the information, Ann!!!!! 😀 😎
Appreciating the good things,
Lily
😆 That’s a good philosophy. 🙂 I think it’s possible. 🙂 No problem! 🙂