The Hardy Boys Digests that have read almost all have the book's title on the top of the splash page. (A splash page is the page right after the cover, it has an excerpt from the book on it.) However, there is one book that does not have this, instead it has "Night Scare" on the top. That book just happens to be Training For Trouble.
This seems strange to me as I have never seen any other digest that did not have the book's title on top of the splash page. Any thoughts? Was there another Digest that did not have the book's title on top of the splash page?
The "splash" pages weren't introduced till 1987, so all the pre-1985 Digests by Wanderer don't have any of those pages.
Quote from: tomswift2002 on October 11, 2009, 04:04:39 PM
The "splash" pages weren't introduced till 1987, so all the pre-1985 Digests by Wanderer don't have any of those pages.
Opps, forgot about those.
Quote from: Dinosaur Dan on October 12, 2009, 07:44:59 AM
Opps, forgot about those.
In the Wanderer books the only thing that might, even slightly, be considered a "Splash" for the book is on the Copyright page where you will see a "Synopsis" section for Copyright filing purposes and that "Synopsis" will usually only contain 1 or 2 sentences with a lot more information sometimes than even the back cover provided.
It seems like there's a deep thought somewhere in this. . .:)
I may not know the history or timeline of splash pages but I do enjoy them. I remember using them to help pick out which books to read. Usually the better splash pages that offered some promised action were the ones to read first. Splash pages catch a reader's attention and I always found them to be what lured me to a book in the first place. Thus a splash page can be invaluable if it sparks a reader's attention. Sometimes it can do the opposite if it fails to capture the story or a particular captivating portion of the book.
I was also guilty of reading chapter cliffhangers to determine how urgent it was to read a certain book. :P
I remember that when I first got into the Hardy Boys back in the 90's at first I didn't have the ability to go 1, 2, 3...etc. like that, so I would be all over the Grosset & Dunlap and Wanderer books that my mom would pick up at garage sales or that I would borrow from the library. One week I would be reading What Happened At Midnight, while the next week I would be on The Roaring River Mystery followed by The Shattered Helmet.