There's been a lot in the papers recently about books getting an unsympathetic update thanks to sensitivity readers. Ian Fleming's Bond stories and the Works of Roald Dahl being the one, with a few nods back to the Famous Five stories, which the Mail fails to point out, were modernized in the nineties. Whether you think this is a good thing or not is beside the point. these are period books we're dealing with Especially Dahls work, which is a cornerstone of children's literature.
So what about the Hardy Boys books, were they ever updated for a more modern audience. Yes the were revised for a more modern audience back in the 1960's. Some examples are:
You don't get African Americans working in the service industry anymore, nor them riding to the rescue in a Model T Ford in Hunting For Hidden Gold. Less flippantly you don't get absolute clusterfucks like Footprints under the window throwing every Chinese cliche at you nor gangs of murderous blacks in The Hidden Harbour Mystery.
More recently, the UK edition of the Firebird Rocket removes the word Abo, when talking about Aboriginal Australians and the revised edition of The Mystery of the Desert Giant has the Haida Indian's speak normally instead of sounding like a heap big stereotype. I suppose a more modern sensitivity reader will have a more positive role for Iola, Callie and Mrs Hardy. As well as possibly making Gertrude Hardy a feminist even if she is already an interesting character.
Anyway a new story dropped for you Billion Dollar Ransom. I'm not going to say who gets ransomed for a cool billion, It'll spoil the story, but the main one involving the boys is them providing security detail for a magic show and looking into strange goings on at the old Opera House.
You can read it here
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