The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery in Skyscraper City

The Happy Hollisters #17

by Jerry West (Pseudonym), Helen S. Hamilton (Illustrator), Andrew E. Svenson

The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery in Skyscraper City (#17 in the Happy Hollisters series)

At a school-benefit sale, Pete Hollister buys an old book about early New York tunnels. Tucked in the pages is a message written in Chinese. The only English word in it is “Help!” The Hollisters take the mysterious note to a Chinese friend for translation and learn that the letter was written many years earlier in China by a Yuen Foo to his son in New York, but was never mailed.
Pete, who has been trying out a new detective kit, tests the letter for possible invisible ink, and is rewarded when concealed Chinese writing shows up. It says Yuen Foo was being threatened because of the “treasure.”
Mr. Hollister has been invited to New York as consultant to a toy manufacturer who is trying to perfect a toy called the “Soaring Satellite.” Mr. Hollister decides to take the family with him for a vacation. The children are pleased not only because of the things to see in New York, but because the clues point to New York’s Chinatown as the location of and answer to the mystery surrounding the letter.
This book is a tour of one of the most famous cities in the world as well as an introduction to a little piece of China and the Chinese way of life at the tip of Manhattan.

First published in 1959, this charming mystery-adventure story, faithfully reproduced, is now available in paperback and eBook for the first time! Written for boys and girls between the ages of six and twelve, The Happy Hollisters are wholesome books, with an accent on humor and good, clean fun. Integrity always pays off and right wins over wrong. Parents, grandparents, and teachers love these books for their healthy celebration of life in simpler times. Kids are thrilled with the fast-paced action and will not want to put them down. The action-packed illustrations make the story – and the Hollister family – so vivid that the reader has a feeling of really sharing in on the adventures of this lovable and interesting family.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Kids, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Mystery Thriller

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West was actually written by Andrew E. Svenson, a prolific yet somewhat anonymous, writer of books for children. Jerry West was the pen name assigned to Svenson when he started writing The Happy Hollisters for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a book packager, well-known for its development of children’s book series including Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. Many of these series were intended to have long publishing lives, and were written by multiple authors using the same pseudonym. The Happy Hollisters, however, were all written by Andrew Svenson, whose identity as Jerry West was kept secret until several years after his death in 1975.

Andrew Svenson was born in Belleville, NJ, in 1910, and his interest in writing started early. He was editor of his high school newspaper and yearbook at Barringer High School in Newark, and then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. After his graduation in 1932, he worked as a reporter and editor for the Newark Star Eagle and the Newark Evening News. He also taught creative writing courses at Rutgers University and Upsala College.

Andrew Svenson was encouraged by his friend Howard Garis (author of Uncle Wiggily) to try his hand at juvenile fiction. He joined the Stratemeyer Syndicate as a writer in 1948, where he contributed to established series as Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) and as Laura Lee Hope (The Bobbsey Twins). The first volume in his own original series, The Happy Hollisters, was published in 1953 by Doubleday & Company, and he was made a partner in the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1961. As he wrote and developed 33 titles in The Happy Hollisters, he was also creating additional series for children under other pen names: Bret King by Dan Scott and The Tollivers by Alan Stone, one of the first series written about and for African-American children.

Under various pseudonyms, Andrew Svenson wrote more than 70 adventure and mystery novels for children, which were published in 17 languages and sold millions of copies. The Hollister family was modeled on his own family and he often used actual Svenson family events and travels as the foundation for The Happy Hollisters books. He also kept copious newspaper clippings for story ideas, and interviewed hundreds of school children and teachers for additional suggestions. These ideas were then worked into his storylines, adding an educational element that was appreciated by parents and educators alike. The children loved the stories for their elements of danger and excitement geared to their comprehension level.

After his death in 1975, the Stratemeyer Syndicate assigned all rights to The Happy Hollisters to his widow, Marian Svenson; they subsequently became the property of The Hollister Family Properties Trust. The current publication was initiated by Andrew E. Svenson III, grandson of the author, on behalf of The Hollister Family Properties Trust.

Reviews

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are some of my most treasured possessions from my childhood. Many of my collected books from the series were from each of my parents when THEY were little, and I continue to collect the books when I come across them at antique stores.

[Elizabeth Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigh. I loved the Happy Hollisters books when I was a kid, so was thrilled to pick up a few of them at a yard sale earlier this year. As I had hoped to rediscover, the mystery here was fun (hidden tunnels, potential treasure, mysterious villains that were convincingly threatening but not too scary for kids, etc.)...and the rest of the setup (big family, dad that's an inexplicably wealthy toy developer, kids allowed to run around pretty freely in a strange city as they solve the mystery) was cheesy but not surprising for 1950s and '60s kid lit, and everything tied up nicely in the end. But as I also feared, like other series of the time (especially the Bobbsey Twins, which is even worse), the racism is really off-putting. "Skyscraper City" here is the not-at-all-veiled New York City, and the story is centered in Chinatown...with every possible Asian stereotype and insulting nickname on full display from the moment the story starts, even though most of the Chinese characters are in fact good guys in the story. So it would be hard to share this with modern 8-year-olds without providing a major lecture on what's wrong with it, and the books would not be the quick, fun, reads they were meant to be. In general, I hate modernizations of classic book series, but the Hollisters might be ripe for one (especially if they preserved the 1950s milieu). White kids learning about Chinese culture while solving a mystery could still be OK, maybe, but with better integration and less "othering" of the Asian characters, and elimination of the derogatory language, please.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery in Skyscraper City
This story involves the family and they head to NY where they have clues from a mystery they are trying to solve.
Underground tunnels is fascinating because many cities have them, most not used any longer.
The dad is on a business trip trying to locate an engineer to finalize the toy he and another are creating.
The kids find a Chinese family who has a dad that is an engineer and they get paired. The kids try to solve the old letter left in a book.
They are continually chased and cause harm to the shop where they visit to unmask the final clue...
Lots of sketches and action as the kids rush all over the city. Love the landmarks.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, nostalgic read that kids will enjoy, but parents reading it will probably like it more. For those unfamiliar, the five Hollister kids are a younger version of The Hardy Boys. The mysteries are less dangerous physically, but that forces the writers to make the kids think harder and make the plots a little bit more interesting in some of the adventures.

Although each book is a standalone adventure, I do recommend trying to start as close to the beginning as possible. It helps to understand a few of the minor characters better.

I read probably half or a bit more of the books when I was a kid, so it is fun to both stroll down memory lane and to also find a new adventure with some familiar faces.

Find it. Buy it. Read it!!

[Softness · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cute story. This mystery took place in New York, in Chinatown. I've come to realize that even though the years are passing, the kids don't age. I first wondered about this when they had neverending kittens. lol

This time the kids went up the statue of liberty, roamed Chinatown, and saw gold bricks in the treasury. And of course, they solved the mystery for their new friends. They found a mysterious note in a book from the school book sale and it led them to New York. All the while they were followed by a thief who went as far as to kidnap an old guy to keep him from telling the kids about a tunnel he once dug.

I think this is the last of my physical books in this series.

[Matt Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Happy Hollisters books and have read over a dozen of them to my daughters. Crickets! This one is overly scripted just like all the others. Mystery in Skyscraper City is particularly dated by language that is now considered racist. Referring to to a specific Asian person as "the Chinese" or "Oriental", acting as if Americans of Chinese descent are only half American, etc. Yikes!

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone agrees that Sue is by far the best Hollister, right?

[Remo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los Hollister es la serie de libros que me inició definitivamente en la lectura. Recuerdo haber leído el primero y, con todo el dinero que había ahorrado por mi primera comunión y en todos los años anteriores, ir a por los 32 restantes, que costaban 600 pelas cada uno. Los compré todos en la feria del libro de Ceuta, lo recuerdo perfectamente, y volví a mi casa con dos bolsas y una mochila llenas de libros, que me duraron tres meses exactamente, para sorpresa/preocupación de mi madre.
Cada libro es el mismo, con aventuras algo diferentes, y con los mismo personajes, que no evolucionan nada en toda la serie. Pete, Pam, Holly, Ricky, Sue, puedo recitar sus nombres treinta años después sin consultarlo. Yo siempre fui de los Hollister, despreciando a quieres eran de los siete secretos, los Cinco o (puaj) Puck.
Junto a Mortadelo, los tres investigadores de Alfred Hitchcock y (a petición de mi padre) las aventuras de Guillermo, comenzaron a formar mi universo lector. Y por ello, aunque sean libros de lo más intrascendente, los considero fundamentales.