The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Midnight Trolls

The Happy Hollisters #33

by Jerry West, Helen S. Hamilton (Illustrator)

The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Midnight Trolls (#33 in the Happy Hollisters series)
The Happy Hollister children are off on another exciting mystery! This time it all starts with a letter written in a funny code from Grandmother Hollister, who lives in Canada. The letter
Dear Children,
Gram is writing to you in code. It is braille. How would you like to visit me and meet a special friend? Also, I wish you could solve the mystery of the midnight trolls.
With love, Gram
The children begged to go visit Gram and Gramp. But Mr. Hollister told them that he would be flying his new sailplane invention in a New York State competition in a few days and, if possible, in the big international sailplane meet in Iceland.
“We’ll have to wait until Daddy tests his sailplane,” Pete said.
Then Pam added, “While Daddy’s in Iceland, we can go to Canada and solve the mystery!”
So in a few days, off they go to Canada where they meet a new blind friend who helps in their detective work. But when Mr. Hollister’s sailplane invention is pirated, they all go on to Iceland to solve another mystery that turns out to be strangely linked to the first!

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

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

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 5 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.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last is as good as the first

I never read The Happy Hollisters series when I was a kid. I'm not sure how I missed them as the school and town libraries carried other Stratemeyer Syndicate series: Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr., the Dana Girls, and the Bobbsey Twins. I didn't read the Bobbseys, as I generally read a grade or three above my age/grade at the time. That may explain why I never read the Happy Hollister books.

Regardless, I'm glad as an older adult that I took the opportunity to read the series from start to finish. What a fun family to spend time with as they investigate mysteries at home and abroad! I'm sad that THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MIDNIGHT TROLLS is the last book I'll have to read, but I'm glad I have each of the books to read again in the future.

This series would make great gifts for young readers, and the audio books could even be used in conjunction with the books to encourage reluctant readers to read more. Highly recommended!

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Midnight Trolls (Happy Hollisters, #33)
Sad for me that this is the last of the books in the series. Loved it so much I went and bought Kindle unlimited to be sure I could read them all.
Took about 2 months and have learned so much about others jobs and careers.
In this one there is braille and I am blind so this I was happy to learn about. love the alphabet at the beginning and how it's used in a code note when the kids really need it.
They get to even travel to Iceland with a blind friend that their grandmother is helping. Such cool things they are able to do.

[Julie Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished the series! One of the more confusing mysteries…

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun story. The Hollisters have a good adventure and visit a place not normally on the agenda of these children series.

[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.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I definitely liked it better than any of the Boxcar Children I read in elementary school. The vocabulary was actually quite exceptional. For the most part, the vocabulary is what you would expect for a children's book, but there are quite a few words in there that really would grow a child's vocabulary!

[Angie Titus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this book aged well. Besides that, it wasn't for me. I found it rather boring.

[Jamie Ericksen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book that also teaches a little about Iceland

It was an enjoyable book, I loved that I also learned a lot while reading it. It had a fun plot and some creative twists!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, I believe, #33 in the Happy Hollisters series, and, printed in 1969, sixteen years after the first in 1953, all of those wacky kids haven’t aged a nanosecond! I’ve already read two previous books in this series, and to my mind this is the best in my limited reading of the series thus far, having a more complex plot. So it starts out with a letter from the kids’ grandmother in Braille, and asking them to come to Canada where she lives to decode it. At the same time, Mr. Hollister has a hobby of building sailplanes (gliders) and competing in races. While the kids are in Canada, they meet a girl who is blind and from Iceland; at the same time, Dad’s sailplane is stolen! Also while in Canada the kids come across what appear to be “trolls” in the countryside. All these events will come together in a multiple mystery that ends up in Iceland, where the blind girl’s family lives. How they can all afford plane fare AND a sailplane on a hardware store owner’s salary remains a mystery to me. Nonetheless, they have a great time in Iceland and end up catching the bad guys (wandering about the Icelandic countryside, unsupervised, getting in dangerous situations seems de rigeur for these books), solving the “trolls” mystery and learning something about Iceland in the process. These books have simple line drawings to supplement the text, but in this book one of the drawings is a rendering of the Icelandic Coat of Arms, which is explained by the blind girl. So not only do we have a travelogue but also a lesson in mythology and culture. I liked this one, but am looking forward to reviews from my granddaughter Chloe, whom I’m gonna see in a couple days. (couple days later) Talked to Chloe, who said she has been reading the first book in the series and likes it a lot. Soooo, probably will go online to see about getting the whole collection, if I can do so for less than the $150 and up many vendors are asking.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Happy Hollisters, five children ranging in age from 12 down to 5, race from one mystery to the next. Their parents are quite happy to let their children have these adventures both with and without them. In book #33, Gram and Gramp Hollister write to the children about a mystery involving trolls. The children immediately clamor to visit their grandparents in Canada to check her story out. When they arrive, they meet young Helga, the niece of their grandparents' next door neighbors. She and her brother Olaf are soon drawn into the Hollisters' detective schemes as they simultaneously try to find out who is causing so many problems for their families and locate an ancient treasure. The clues take them from Canada to Iceland, where the children once again impress everyone who meets them with their sleuthing skills.

I agree that the complexity of these mysteries increased as the series went on - in a good way. The children are skilled amateur detectives, but they are also children. This means that sometimes one will get scared and run down a mountain, while another will have difficulties sharing what she saw for the lack of the right word. The series treats the children appropriately for their age, they are highly intelligent but never unnatural. Certainly everyone has a pesky brother like Ricky who seems to get into as much trouble as he can but still manages to contribute to the success of their missions.

The inclusion of braille was always a fun extra for me, even as a child. Also, the description of Iceland makes it sound like a place I'd love to visit. West always painted vivid pictures that could catch a child's imagination, even as he crafted a mystery for the Hollister children to solve.