Best of the Hardy Boys Classic Collection (Volume 2): The House on the Cliff/The Ghost at Skeleton Rock/The Sting of the Scorpion, Vol. 2 Book

I picked up this book because it landed on so many good children's book lists. And while it wasn't a terrible book, it wasn't very good either. The lone redeemable quality of the book was the friendship that developed between Ivy and Bean, when it initially appeared that the two had very little in common. Ivy was the prim and proper book-reader and Bean, the puddle-splashing rabble-rouser.

However, it was what the relationship formed around that was troubling. The two become friends when Ivy helps Bean escape punishment for one of the many instances when she torments her older sister. Bean then discovers that Ivy wasn't reading books because she was bookish, but because she is studying to become a witch. The rest of the book involves the two of them lying and causing trouble in their attempt to cast a spell on Bean's older sister.

Kids will be kids, and that certainly involves their fair share of mischief. But unlike protagonists in other children's books (think Beverly Cleary's Ramona or Judy Blume's Fudge), Ivy and Bean revel in their misdeeds and are never called to account for them. Bean's mom even found it mildly funny that the girls threw worms in the face of her older sister.

Don't get me wrong. Kids will enjoy the book. They'll learn new names to call their siblings, like tightwad, and hear many they are probably already familiar with, like dork. The question is whether or not you want to expose them to it. I'm glad that I read it before my children, because I choose not to. There's plenty of other good ones out there.