A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Jack, age 12

The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West is an exciting, fun, and wonderful series of books. The Happy Hollisters books were written by a company called The Stratemeyer Syndicate whose goal was to write good, well-written, and easy-to-read books that were formulaic, so a young reader just getting fluent with reading could build confidence. I think that The Happy Hollisters hits all these points perfectly. 

This series follows a family and what happens to them when they get pulled into mysteries. Each book has a different mystery. This book’s story happens when they move to a new house. They lose one of the moving trucks and all their toys disappear. There is a strange prowler who comes into their basement at night.

One of the reasons I love this series is that there is no violence and no fighting between siblings. Because a fun exciting story doesn’t need violence or sassiness to make it interesting for kids. 

“I can see why people call you the Happy Hollisters. You make other people happy, as well as being happy yourselves.” —The Happy Hollisters: book 1, by Jerry West, page 183 

This book starts with the Hollisters moving to a new house. During the move, they lose one of the vans. This van, of course, had all of the Hollisters’ toys and a suitcase that Mr. Hollister needs. In the suitcase  there are some very important papers. The Hollisters are moving to a town where Mr. Hollister (who is a shop owner) will open a new shop called The Trading Post. The children will help their dad in his new store, and they will have challenges and success while they work there. 

When the Hollisters move, they find out they have a prowler. They try taking his picture. I found this very interesting because they have to use flash bulbs, and they are talking at one point about how they used up their last flashbulb. Being born in the twenty-first century, I found this hilarious, because I’m used to cameras that can remove things from the picture with a press of a button.

They also meet the town bully, who does some very mean things like putting a cat in a basket, then taking her out on the dock and slowly letting the basket fill with water. Now, the cat doesn’t drown and the bully is the one that gets a dunking.

There are so many reasons why I love this series. One of them is that the author (Jerry West) was actually writing about his children. Now, obviously, his real children did not have the adventures that the Hollisters had. 

These books are currently being reprinted by Jerry West’s family. They are available at The Happy Hollisters’ website, on Amazon, and some are on Audible.

Here is a link to this book on Biblioguides.