IT IS A GREAT MYSTERY, I HAVE THROUGHLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK I HAVE ALWAYS PICTURE MYSELF GOING ON THESE MYSTERIES WITH THEM

This book was funny. I got it 6 days ago. Here's the big question: IS FRANK HARDY A THIEF?? No way! But somebody's making it look as if he is. A really cool book on baseball statistics was stolen from the school library. Now it's made a sudden and surprising comeback-in Frank's backpack! Frank and Joe have a pretty good batting average when it comes to solving mysteries. But this one is no fun, because if Frank gets the blame, he'll miss his basketball team's first game of the season! The ending is funny when Wendy, the thief, and also the girl who has a crush on Joe, says she won't wear Love Is in the Air perfume anymore and Joe tells her not to have a crush on him until they were in high school. I think that's weird. How come in The Hardy Boys series she wasn't mentioned? I mean they are in high school! Everyone else was mentioned except for the bullies.

If you like silent film history then you have to have this book. It's got pictures from all the good ones: The Great Train Robbery 1903, The Birth of a Nation 1915, And the story about a Chinese man in Broken Blosssoms 1919. You have to have this book as it is RARE and one of a kind.

All I can say is that I've ridden with the authors and these guys know SLO mountain biking. In staying true to the sport, the authors hold yearly Hammerfests, where we spend an entire Memorial Day Weekend "hammering" out the trails listed in this book, and then some.

Although there isn't an Illegal Trails version of this book for obvious reasons, the legal ones clearly illustrated in this book are enough for most beginner and serious bikers alike.

Fat Tire Fun features an easy-to-use format. Trails are clearly labeled and each ride is prefaced by a brief synopsis featuring a ride difficulty scale (1 to 5), ride elevation profile, and--most important of all--the PO (Poison Oak) factor.

If you are going to ride SLO--or are a SLO county biking veteran--then this book is a must. I know for a fact that the authors have ridden every single trail multiple times, and they can ocassionally be found at the Pozos saloon with a gallon of Pozo Martini within arm's reach.

This is a great new series even if it's for little kids. I just wanted to check it out and it's really good. I've read # 1-6. In this one, Frank Hardy is 9, his brother Joe is 8, and they're the new kids on the block in Bayport. They're looking for new friends, and they've found one-Chet Morton. But they're also finding plenty of mystery, fun, and adventure. A bully threw Chet's baseball mitt into a spooky old house, but all Chet sees inside are two glowing red eyes! Is it a ghost? A monster? The Hardys go on a search for clues-in a house with a skeleton, a brain, and blood!

The Wizard of Was Mr. Joe Franklin hits one over the fence with his latest offering! This is an interesting, fun, challenging book that will put your knowledge of the world of entertainment to the test. Questions relating to the silent era of films right up to the present can be found in this easy to read book. In addition to the questions, Joe tells some wonderful stories about his experiences and about some of the thousands of guests he has interviewed throughout his 50+ year career.
Joe's Memory Lane radio show can still be heard on NY's WOR 710AM station midnight Saturday untill 5AM Sunday!

The Karate Clue is a really great book. It's exactly how I pictured the Hardy's as kids, especially Joe. I highly recommend this book!

This is a great book! My wife and I both read it after having lived in the Middle East for several years, and were pleased at the author's care to present Arabian life and culture in an accurate fashion. But this is not a story about Arabia, nor is it a story about war; it is an engrossing tale of espionage, love, betrayal, and three people trying to save a precarious government from collapse. I would like to give the book five stars, but the edition I read contained several spelling errors near the end; it looked as if the proof-reader had been in a hurry. But I do recommend the novel.

I loved this book--it was recommended to me by a friend who knew that I had spent time in the Middle East & I have to say, the story really evokes the essence and flavor of the area--you can almost smell the incense as you read. The plot kept me up all night--just couldn't put it down...Great suspense/espionage, also a poignant love story.

This is the story of Perry, the lonliest kid in the world. In response to the tragic death of his daughter and separation from his wife, Jack Dubois takes his son, Perry to a secluded, forested region of Minnesota, then becomes the stereotypical "silent tough guy." As a result, Perry (who is also home-schooled), has no friends and nobody to talk to. He is self-reliant until a new family moves into the nearby Bennett House: A large family of talkative artists from California. Perry is upset about this (as I know I would be if talkative artists moved in next door to me), especially because the only family memmber his age is a girl (ewwwwwww!). Slowly, Perry and Jack open up to each other and build interpersonal relationships.

While I don't think this is Kristine Franklin's best book, it is a good one. I taught it to my fifth graders who enjoyed it a lot. One good thing about this book is the fact that Perry is a dynamic (changing), three dimensional character, so we can focus on him and how he changes during the novel, while the other characters are largely one-dimensinal. This is not a criticism of the book: it allows the young reader to identify with the characters and predict what his/her reactions will be ("Dad will say nothing, Willow will talk a lot and be annoying," etc.), so that reading comprehnesion is easier.

In sum, I recommend this book because kids enjoy the story, the static characters make reading it easy and because it's generally an easy book to teach.

I liked this book. It's not the best I've ever read, but it was enjoyable. I liked it!

Lone Wolf, a realistic fiction book by Kristine Franklin, is an excellent read. It is about Perry, a bright young man whose family has been torn apart by tragedy. Coping with a silent, hardworking father and an absent mother, Perry quietly lives close to nature in northern Minnesota, homeschooling himself without much input from his father. When a new family moves in to the house on some nearby property, Perry finds himself learning how to cope with new situations and the emotions they evoke. The plot and character development in Lone Wold is deep and powerful. As a teacher, I found this book an excellent read aloud that enabled the class to discuss many sensitive issues productively. It provided many personal links for my fifth grade students.

My son and I read this book together. It kept us guessing to the end. More amazing than that, it kept his attention throughout. He actually asked me to sit down and read with him, so he could learn how the case came out. Like in other books in the series, elementary-age Frank and Joe Hardy work with their friends to solve a mystery and help a friend in need. In this case, they help a magician regain his good reputation by discovering who stole the latest Jimmy Han flick during the magician's show. References to magic and karate wrapped up in a mystery make a great story for young readers.

In his long awaited autobiography.Joe Franklin and his co author:Mr.R.J.Marx try to recall Joe's life story.From his humble beginnings in The Bronx,NYC during the hideious days of The Great Depression to his first encounter with a former star:George M.Cohan to his early job in radio as a record librian and research asistant first to Martin Block(for Mr.Block's "Make Believe Ballroom Time"Show)and later for Paul("Pop")Whiteman.Before Franklin finally got his own radio talk/music shows on stations like WJZ.To his earliest days on TV: First on WJZ/WABC TV Ch.7 in NYC with"Joe Franklin's Memory Lane!"to his later years on WOR TV/WWOR TV Ch.9 in NYC and in Seacaucus,NJ with"The Joe Franklin Show" &"When Movies Were Movies"and his most recent nostalgia talk/music program on WOR Radio.While the book tries to tell Franklin's life story.Most of the bio's facts are questionable.Since Joe does not go into alot of details about his career and his disrespect for NYC based kids tv hosts/performers is eveident.He gets the facts about the hosts/performers of WJZ/WABC TV Ch.7 NYC's"Time For Fun"/"The Johnny Jellybean Show"wrong.Since Joe Bova..never played:"Johnny Jellybean"on that show(The role was played first by Bill Britten and later by Keith Hefner).Mr.Bova did host:"Time For Fun!"but as "Uncle Joe".Franklin also gets the facts wrong about Claude Kirchner.Mr.Kirchner never played a clown on his WOR TV Ch.9 NYC based cartoon shows.He played a circus ringmaster.Who worked with a clown puppet"Clownie".But he never wore a clown suit and make up on his NYC based kids tv shows and Franklin also gets the facts wrong about who hosted:"The Tommy Seven Show".The host/performer..who played the sad faced tramp clown was not:Keith Hefner..but The Late Ed Bakey.Mr.Bakey passed away in May,1988 not Mr.Hefner.This book does little more have Mr.Franklin give the readers a random smapling of his life stories.With inaccuate facts and nasty lies about his colleages in NYC tv added to the manuscript for those lovers of gossip mongering.This is one memiors not worth having.Kevin S.Butler.

There are many interesting anecdotes about the greats and the near greats (whatever that is?) I think it means when they mention your name, they have to explain who you are. "Greats, near greats and ingrates" is a Damon Runyon line. Mr. Franklin is even somewhat kind and forgiving to the ingrates...As to what is Joe Franklin really like? There are plenty of stories about his youth, his rise in show business, his marriage and his son. If you like sexy tidbits about the stars and about Joe also, there are plenty. If you don"t like that stuff, or you think it's overdone, skip over it...The funniest pages in the book, at least to this reviewer, are about three "never-weres" who had a "fixation" on Joe Franklin. Busted out laughing reading that stuff. But some of the stories are very sad. This isn't all light reading. Some are mysterious (you wonder how that happened)...The book (copyrighted 1995) seems to celebrate the "retirement of Joe
Franklin." If that was true, he seems to be making a big comeback. He's as active as ever and has a great restaurant near Times Square, and it's a great New York book. It happened in New York.