1. Stratemeyer's favorite among the many series he produced was the Rover Boys. The series was discontinued in 1930, but copies of the books are still available in some public libraries. Compare this series with the Hardy Boys.

How do the two series compare in regard to characterization and plot structure?

2. Compare the Hardy Boys series to the more recent genre of teen-age problem novels. The formula for this type of novel can be seen in Emily Neville's It's Like This, Cat (1963), in which a teenager tries to deal with alienation from parents, or Paul Zindel's I Never Loved Your Mind (1970), about a runaway girl.

3. Leslie McFarlane says that the crimes solved by the Hardy brothers all involve offenses against property and that this is quite in keeping with their position as young middle-class people.

Is this accurate?

4. Nancy Drew and the...