The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery at Missile Town (#19 in the Happy Hollisters series)A slender missile, fire streaming from its tail, rose majestically into the blue sky over the waters of Cape Kennedy. Suddenly it exploded into a thousand pieces, showering the ocean and beaches with debris. This was the first sight to greet the Hollisters on their arrival in Florida for a visit with their cousins, Sharon and Randy Davis. Anxious to help Uncle Walt, a rocket expert at Patrick Air Force Base, they join in the search for the rocket's nose cone, which is lost among the debris. The payload lodged in the nose cone is a very special "treasure," for on it depends the success of future launchings.The holiday becomes an adventure when their new friend, Lady Rhesus, the space monkey, is stolen and they discover that her tracks lead to a fisherman's beach shack. The secretive manner of the fisherman, plus a strange encounter with his friend, leads Pete to suspect that they are engaged in something more villainous than stealing a monkey. When he finds that their boat is equipped with a powerful radar device for deep-sea exploration, he is certain! From then on the Hollisters race against time to find the three-million-dollar payload first.This new story should be an excellent addition to the series, since it brings the Hollisters into the headline-making news of Cape Kennedy. First published in 1961, this charming mystery-adventure story, faithfully reproduced, is now available in paperback and eBook for the first time! Written for boys and girls between the ages of six and twelve, The Happy Hollisters are wholesome books, with an accent on humor and good, clean fun. Integrity always pays off and right wins over wrong. Parents, grandparents, and teachers love these books for their healthy celebration of life in simpler times. Kids are thrilled with the fast-paced action and will not want to put them down. The action-packed illustrations make the story - and the Hollister family - so vivid that the reader has a feeling of really sharing in on the adventures of this lovable and interesting family.
About the Author: The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West was actually written by Andrew E. Svenson, a prolific yet somewhat anonymous, writer of books for children. Jerry West was the pen name assigned to Svenson when he started writing The Happy Hollisters for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packager well-known for its development of children's book series including Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. Many of these series were intended to have long publishing lives, and were written by multiple authors using the same pseudonym. The Happy Hollisters, however, were all written by Andrew Svenson, whose identity as Jerry West was kept secret until several years after his death in 1975. Andrew Svenson was born in Belleville, NJ, in 1910, and his interest in writing started early. He was editor of his high school newspaper and yearbook at Barringer High School in Newark, and then went on to study Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. After his graduation in 1932, he worked as a reporter and editor for the Newark Star Eagle and the Newark Evening News. Andrew Svenson was encouraged by his friend Howard Garis (author of Uncle Wiggily) to try his hand at juvenile fiction. He joined the Stratemeyer Syndicate as a writer in 1948, where he contributed to established series as Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) and as Laura Lee Hope (The Bobbsey Twins). The first volume in his own original series, The Happy Hollisters, was published in 1953 by Doubleday & Company, and he was made a partner in the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1961. As he wrote and developed 33 titles in The Happy Hollisters, he was also creating additional series for children under other pen names: Bret King by Dan Scott and The Tollivers by Alan Stone. Under various pseudonyms, Andrew Svenson wrote more than 70 adventure and mystery novels for children, which were published in 17 languages and sold millions of copies. The Hollister family was modeled on his own family and he often used Svenson family events and travels as the foundation for The Happy Hollisters books. He also kept copious newspaper clippings for story ideas, and interviewed hundreds of school children and teachers for additional suggestions. These ideas were then worked into his storylines, adding an educational element that was appreciated by parents and educators alike. The children loved the stories for their elements of danger and excitement geared to their comprehension level.