In Latest Hardy Boys Case, a Search for New Readers:

“The Hardy Boys turn 75 next year, still living at

home and enrolled in Bayport High. They are still

well-scrubbed Boy Scout types from the 1920’s,

with personalities that barely extend beyond the

color of their hair. And their books still sell more

than a million copies a year.

Holding on to the sunset of the Hardy Boys’ adolescence has not been simple. To keep them au courant,

their publisher, Simon & Schuster, now equips them with cell phones, computers and high- tech gadgets,

dispatching them on torn-from-the-headlines adventures involving citywide surveillance systems, corporate

whistle- blowers, extreme sports and online crime.

As with many children’s series, sales of new Hardy Boys books are flagging, publishers and booksellers

say, and some wonder how much longer the formulaic escapades can hold boys’ scarce attention. This

summer, a new team at Simon & Schuster’s children’s book division plans to re-examine its plans for the

Hardy Boys, said Anne Greenberg, executive editor in charge.” New York Times