The Happy Hollisters series is a children’s mystery/adventure series of books started in 1953 by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and author/partner Andrew E. Svenson, using the pseudonym Jerry West. It was customary practice for the Stratemeyer Syndicate to assign pen names to series books, so that more than one author could contribute to the series; for example, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series books were written by multiple authors, all of whom used the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon or Carolyn Keene, respectively. Unlike those books, however, Jerry West was not a shared pen name. The Happy Hollisters books were all written by Andrew Svenson.
The Hollister family – Pete, Pam, Ricky, Holly, and Sue – were modeled on Svenson’s own children and their family life in Bloomfield, NJ. Mr. Hollister owns The Trading Post, a hardware store and toy shop in fictional Shoreham, and is often assisted at the store by his tight-knit family. The family has fun and adventures together, but when the mysteries arise, the independent Hollister children become amateur sleuths and are allowed to investigate and solve the mysteries on their own.
The Happy Hollisters were designed to appeal to young readers, particularly those between the ages of 4 and 12 – the ages of the Hollister family children. Children love The Happy Hollisters for the excitement and intrigue, but parents and teachers also love them for their carefully detailed educational themes. Andrew Svenson’s goal in writing the youth mystery novels series was to encourage a love of reading in children; each book was planned so that the first page would draw the reader in with a dangerous or mysterious situation, and each chapter would end with a cliffhanger or exciting twist that encouraged the child to turn the page and keep reading.
Doubleday & Co. published the first four titles in the series in 1953, and four titles were usually added to the series each year. When the series was completed in 1969, there were 33 volumes, published in the U.S. and eight additional countries. After Andrew Svenson’s death in 1975, the Stratemeyer Syndicate graciously transferred the copyrights to his widow, Marian Svenson. Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. reissued four titles from the series in 1979, but all publication was discontinued at the end of 1983. Over the course of their publishing history, over 16 million copies of The Happy Hollisters series books were sold.
In 2010, the Svenson Group, Inc. on behalf of the Hollister Family Properties Trust, began reissuing select volumes in both trade paperback and Kindle Ebook format. In 2023, the 33-volume reissue project was fully completed with paperback, hardcover, and digital e-book formats. Digital audio productions are now currently in the works. See the TRADING POST STORE page on this site for all available titles!
The 33-volume series includes the following titles:
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS ON A RIVER TRIP
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT SEA GULL BEACH
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE INDIAN TREASURE
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT MYSTERY MOUNTAIN
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT SNOWFLAKE CAMP
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE TRADING POST MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT CIRCUS ISLAND
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE SECRET FORT
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MERRY-GO-ROUND MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT PONY HILL FARM
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE OLD CLIPPER SHIP
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AT LIZARD COVE
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE SCARECROW MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE TOTEM FACES
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE ICE CARNIVAL MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY IN SKYSCRAPER CITY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE LITTLE MERMAID
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY AT MISSILE TOWN
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE COWBOY MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE SECRET OF THE LUCKY COINS
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE CASTLE ROCK MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE CUCKOO CLOCK MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE SWISS ECHO MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE SEA TURTLE MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE PUNCH AND JUDY MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE WHISTLE-PIG MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE GHOST HORSE MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN WITCH
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MEXICAN IDOL
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MONSTER MYSTERY
- THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MIDNIGHT TROLLS
All Happy Hollisters titles (paperback and hardcover formats) are available for purchase via this site’s Trading Post Store, and includes FREE SHIPPING in the USA!