The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers: #40

[MacGyver]

A working title and release date for the Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #40 The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper are now up at Amazon.com.

[MacGyver]

I saw the name of this book on a Wikipedia page listing titles of Hardy Boys books and I was thinking (and perhaps hoping ) it was a joke at first, you know- someone messing around with editing the Wikipedia page. (as seems to happen every so often on The Hardy Boys Wiki, for whatever reason.)
    But no- it's the real title alright. It's not on Amazon.com yet, but Simon & Schuster has revealed the title for #40 in The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers series- The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper. I guess they didn't want to use the name of a real social network to avoid copyright issues, but this particular social network name is kind of a running joke for me and a friend whose mom has been known to jokingly refer to either/or Myspace and FaceBook as this.
      It also seems this is a plot that's been done before, albeit I guess not in the UB series. But it definitely has been done in the Hardy Boys Graphic Novel series. (#8 Haley Danelle's Top 8) Hopefully, it will be good. Here's the description from Simon & Schuster.
It's set to be released May 22, 2012 and with 160 pages. That seems to be fairly consistent with the series release cycle for the most part, with about 4 months in between books, though it is a bit down on page counts (as the first two of the "Deathstalker" Trilogy books have 176 pages. And both of these will be printed in 2011, whereas the last of the Trilogy and this #40 book are 2012 books.)
           A few other things I noticed- the description for this book says Frank and Joe will enroll in a new school for this case, so that should be interesting. Certainly not the first time Frank and Joe have done something like that (#9 of The Hardy Boys Casefiles, The Genius Thieves comes to mind). But the other thing I'm wondering about is the name of the book. It's pretty neat to have a traditional sort of naming function here with "The Case of..." in the title. (reminds me of the Original Hardy Boys books' typical titles and some of the Digests.) But I also wonder if this title indicates that the series is moving back to a singular case rather than the trilogy mode. I suppose this particular "Case" can still stretch for three books, but the naming function seems to indicate to me that this could be a singular adventure. Just wondering...

Oh yeah- like Columbo, there's just one more thing...
I also noticed that Simon & Schuster has "(w.t.)" listed at the end of this title on their site. I wonder what this stands for...

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I don't know what that stands for either. But I can't wait to read the book!

[Olivia]

           A few other things I noticed- the description for this book says Frank and Joe will enroll in a new school for this case, so that should be interesting. Certainly not the first time Frank and Joe have done something like that (#9 of The Hardy Boys Casefiles, The Genius Thieves comes to mind). But the other thing I'm wondering about is the name of the book. It's pretty neat to have a traditional sort of naming function here with "The Case of..." in the title. (reminds me of the Original Hardy Boys books' typical titles and some of the Digests.) But I also wonder if this title indicates that the series is moving back to a singular case rather than the trilogy mode. I suppose this particular "Case" can still stretch for three books, but the naming function seems to indicate to me that this could be a singular adventure. Just wondering...

That does pique my interest just a bit. But the last UB I read was probably like #29.

[tomswift2002]

Oh yeah- like Columbo, there's just one more thing...
I also noticed that Simon & Schuster has "(w.t.)" listed at the end of this title on their site. I wonder what this stands for...

The "(w.t)" stands for "working-title", so The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper may not be the true title of the book. 

And, according to Simon & Schuster's Canadian website, it's the first book in another trilogy.  (http://series.simonandschuster.ca/Hardy-Boys-(All-New)-Undercover-Brothers   

look in the area where you can scroll through the books, just above the message boards.)

[SDLagent]

Frank and Joe are uncover once again for the ATAC?American Teenagers Against Crime?the undercover government organization that recruits teenagers for missions where adult detectives would be identified right away. Their latest case involves missing high school students who disappear after attending a party that they're invited to via MyFace! Is MyFace a social network of friends or a network of kidnappers? Frank and Joe enroll in a new school to find out who's behind these disturbing and maybe deadly abductions.

That's the plot summary. The name of book's just laughable (MyFace? Really?) and the plot sounds about on the same level without the laughs.

It is interesting that S&S has designated The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper as a "working title". Although I've seen the title of an HB book change before publication I've never seen this "w.t." label before.

[tomswift2002]

That's the plot summary. The name of book's just laughable (MyFace? Really?) and the plot sounds about on the same level without the laughs.

It is interesting that S&S has designated The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper as a "working title". Although I've seen the title of an HB book change before publication I've never seen this "w.t." label before.

I've seen the "w.t." label on a couple of Star Trek book listings on Simon & Schuster's website in the past and the books have always had their titles changed or altered (by altered I mean that, for example the Starfleet Academy book The Edge was originally listed as The Competitive Edge[/ui] with the "W.T." beside it).

[SDLagent]

I'm guessing they'll drop "The Case of" from the title.

[tomswift2002]

I'm guessing they'll drop "The Case of" from the title.

And call it The MyFace Kidnapper?  That would be a horrendous mistake.  But, it is the Undercover Brothers. 

But I think the title will probably change to something else.  Just look at Tom Swift #6 from the 90's series.  Originally it was going to be called Tom Swift and The Undersea Raiders but then it was changed to Aquatech Warriors.

[MacGyver]

Okay- duh! Working title- I should have figured that out. That makes sense- thanks, tomswift2002.
And yeah- hopefully maybe they'll find a better name for this book then... of course, I think they could probably find a better plot too - I mean, granted- there is some real life basis in these kinds of threats- but they honestly seem to be fairly outdated now and just kinda laughable more than anything...
It just seems they could find a more menacing title- something like maybe Death Network perhaps... I don't know- and while I like "The Case of" construct, I just that fits a singular title better than a trilogy- but perhaps that part of the title will change too...

[SDLagent]

And yeah- hopefully maybe they'll find a better name for this book then... of course, I think they could probably find a better plot too -

Ya think? A five year old kid could think-up a better plot. True story.

[MacGyver]

Wow- that's crazy cool.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

The Case of the Myface Kidnapper could work. Hey, it could be a teaching tool for kids not not to put a lot of PI on the net. I've seen some pages where it's like they have way to much information on them.

[JoeHardyRocks]

Yeah, but most kids won't make that connection from the fiction book to themselves.

I don't think this book is going to be good IMO... The Nancy Drew GD cyberbullying one was good, but the UB's just aren't going anywhere.

[tomswift2002]

Okay- duh! Working title- I should have figured that out. That makes sense- thanks, tomswift2002.

Your welcome

And yeah- hopefully maybe they'll find a better name for this book then... of course, I think they could probably find a better plot too - I mean, granted- there is some real life basis in these kinds of threats- but they honestly seem to be fairly outdated now and just kinda laughable more than anything...

Yeah, put that way about how it is outdated makes it sound just like Burned where the Hardy's were working on a case about illegally burnt CD's.

It just seems they could find a more menacing title- something like maybe Death Network perhaps... I don't know- and while I like "The Case of" construct, I just that fits a singular title better than a trilogy- but perhaps that part of the title will change too...

Death Network sounds like it could've fit right in the Hardy Boys Casefiles series.