Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays: Happy Hollisters


I've been a little absent from the blogging world lately.  (Did ya miss me?)  Nothing much really going on, but I've been a little too busy with LIFE to do a lot of reading.  Actually, that should be Project Life -- I was bitten by the scrapbooking bug a few weeks ago, and I've been playing with photos and photo albums and little scraps of paper for days now.  But that's material for another blog post...someday, maybe.  For now, I'm just really happy to slip back into the world of books and reading.

This week, my teaser lines come from one of the books I'm thinking of reading for the Pre-1960 Classic Children's Books Reading Challenge.  As a child I read several of the Happy Hollister books and really liked them; but somehow I managed to ignore the first book in the series (The Happy Hollisters, published in 1953), so I thought I might do something about that this year.  This snippet comes from page 24, and has Pete and Pam, the two oldest Hollister siblings, looking over their new home:
"This is it," Pete shouted. "A trap door on springs."
Pete opened it quickly and flashed his light below. A narrow flight of steps led downward.
"A secret stairway!" Pete gasped. "Our new house has a secret stairway!"
Trap doors.  Secret stairways.  That's the kind of stuff I would have loved as a kid.  And also the sort of thing that was always happening to the Hollisters.  No wonder they were so Happy!



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

13 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun read! I'll have to look for these for my kids. http://starrweavings.blogspot.com/2013/03/teaser-tuesday.html

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  2. That's a nice teaser! I hope you're liking the book.

    I'm a new follower of your blog via GFC!

    Thanks for sharing!

    My Teaser Tuesday post.

    Happy reading! :D

    Sarika @ The Readdicts

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  3. Sounds like a fun read! I always used to think it would so cool to have a secret passageway in a house. Here's our teasers: http://www.ourstack.blogspot.com/2013/03/tuesday-teasers-death-of-bees-and.html

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  4. Oh, how did I miss this series? It's not too late....thanks for sharing.

    And a little tidbit: In the 1970's, we lived in a rambling house that seemed to spread out forever; and in one of the bedrooms, behind the mirror, was a secret passage that led to the wall that housed bookshelves in the family room. My kids loved it!

    Here's MY TUESDAY MEMES POST

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  5. Thank you so much for reminding your readers about The Happy Hollisters. These books were written by my grandfather, Andrew Svenson (who wrote using the pseudonym Jerry West). We're in the process of reissuing the series in paperback and eBook. The original series of 33 books has been out of print for many, many years, but in the past 2 years we've republished volumes 1-11 and 21. We plan to release several more each year until the whole series is available again.
    The series was based on my grandfather's children (my dad and my aunts and uncles) and their real-life adventures, and the house with the secret stairway in the book was modeled on their childhood home in New Jersey!
    The books are available through Amazon (paperback and for the Kindle), Barnes & Noble (NOOK e-reader), and in paperback through our website, www.TheHappyHollisters.com. Happy reading!

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  6. I bet I would have liked this one when I was younger! Here’s my TT post!

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  7. My granddaughter will love these books when she's a little older. I'll order them for her. Thanks for the teaser.
    My Teaser is from THE LAW OF SIMILARS.

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  8. They sound really good.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/03/teaser-tuesday.html

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  9. who doesn't love secret stairways! Sounds like a great, fun read! Thanks for sharing.
    here is mine:
    http://werejumpinbooks.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/teaser-tuesday-2/

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  10. That is a cool teaser!
    It reminds me of this house we lived in when I was a kid. I always called the staircase that led from my parents bedroom to the kitchen a hidden stairway, since it was hidden behind a closet door. You really had no idea it was there from either end.

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  11. I have never heard of this book series! How did I miss it? I will have to look into some of them. I wish you post some of your scrapbooking pages -- I love looking at them but it makes me a little crazy to do them. Brianna used to love scrapbooking and I used to love watching her! Post pics.

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    1. I don't know how you missed it either, since it was your mom who gave me the first book I read in the series! For Christmas one year, I think.

      Well, I'm not really much good at "scrapping" but I've got so many photos that need to go in albums, I thought I'd give it another try. I need it to be really easy and fast, though, or I get bored with it. Thus, the Project Life experiment. If I ever actually get any pages finished maybe I will post some pix.

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  12. I adore the Happy Hollisters. They were some of my favorite books when I was a child (along with The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew). I can still remember what shelf they were located on in my public library. One of my favorite books is the one where they go to Denmark. Loved it!

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