The House on the Point: A Tribute to Franklin W. Dixon and The Hardy Boys Horror Book Review

In 1987, Benjamin Hoff published The Tao of Pooh, a plainspoken yet startlingly complex re-examination of A. A. Milnes Winnie The Pooh stories.Hoffs keen insights propelled the book, and its sequel, The Te of Piglet, to total sales of over two million copies.Now Hoff has turned his investigative sensibility to Franklin W. Dixons beloved Hardy Boys mysteries.As a child, Hoff loved the Hardy Boys; they were the books that hooked him on his now lifelong love of reading. Recently, he revisited The House on the Cliff, one of the classic early Hardy Boys mysteries, and decided to reinterpret it for the legions of fans who, like himself, have not completely left behind the lure of a Hardy Boys adventure. In The House on the Point, his recast version of that book, Hoff takes us back to the Hardys hometown of Bayport that we know and love, but does so with a greater attention to detail, more fully developed characters, and a modern ear for dialogue.Hoff includes an intriguing essay on the importance of reading mysteries for young readers. By teaching kids how to think critically via rational deduction, to examine details and formulate theories and, in the broadest sense, instilling a love of reading, Hoff defines why the Hardy Boys have held their grip on the imagination of children the world over for six decades.