Enemies of the Secret Hide-Out

by John Lawrence Peterson

Suddenly, Beany hears a voice. "Hey you! Come down from our tree house! You're surrounded! You can't escape!"

Genres: Childrens

Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

John Lawrence Peterson was an American author of children's books best known as the creator of The Littles.

Reviews

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the first book I ever loved, and probably the first book to spark my interest in mystery, crime and suspense. I think I first read this when I was 7 years old (1972), and recently found it again on Amazon.com.

The story: Matt, Sam, Beany and Ted decide to form the Vikings, a neighborhood kids' club — you might even call it a gang — complete with obscure cues, clues, initiation rites and, of course, a secret hide-out in the nearby woods. When another neighbor boy, Rusty, gets impatient with the tests and stalks off, he decides to start a rival club instead — one set on ruining the Vikings by exposing its secrets. The Vikings get wind of the plot and decide to strike first, leading to a couple of exciting chase scenes and confrontations in the spooky woods.

The story is well-told, lean, mean and economical, and I remember wanting badly to live on the same street as these kids and share in the same adventures. A great firing pin for a kid's embryonic imagination.

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the dark pencil sketches with shading illustration style. The only color is the different shades of red (lightly shaded to dark pressed pencil)

The story is about a group of boys initiating new members into their (secret hideout) club with tests and a boy who couldn't pass getting upset and trying to plot against them. Not an overly exciting story for me but it's not horrible.

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I don't like the insults: "fat little boy" (p.9) "sissy" (p.46)

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I like these parts:

I like the racial integration and friendliness between the boys (p. 10). -- This book is from 1966 and I haven't seen a lot of older books with different races in them from that era.

p. 19 "Holy cats!"

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This is published by Scholastic Book Services, a division of Scholastic Book Services. (March 1966).
This book cost 45 cents according to the cover.

[Rodney Haydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A favorite of my childhood. This is a worthy sequel to The Secret Hide-Out and reminds me of the things I did with my gang of friends at that age. What great fun!

[Gulshan Naqvee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is so cute really. Like a day well spent.

[Melanie J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book that I totally had forgotten bout until I saw it on the author's list!

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

A group of boys form a summer club based around a secret hideout, but when one of the other boys decides to start a rival club instead, it becomes a tense battle of nighttime missions and double-crosses, of Vikings versus Pirates.

I love these old Scholastic paperbacks from the sixties. I especially like the way older books of this type take the kids' play-pretend for granted, just like real kids do, without trying to elevate it into something super-magical like modern ones often do. Most of these Scholastics from the 60s hold up surprisingly well, too, except of course that elementary school kids these days would never be allowed to run around in the woods unsupervised all summer.