This study examines the contents, themes, and publishing histories of juvenile literature. Subjects range from Louisa May Alcott to Nancy Drew's home town, including Tom Swift (and his girlfriend), Dave Fearless, the Bobbsey Twins, Howard R. Garis, the Louisa May Alcott/Oliver Optic feud, Leo Edwards, Harry Collingwood, Edward Stratemeyer, the Rover Boys, Franklin Mathiews and Boy Scout Censorship, and Percy Keese Fitzhugh.

Has Nick Carter finally met his match? A new master-criminal is on the New York scene—and armed with medical knowledge, a talent for impersonation, and a brazen set of schemes that even use Nick to his advantage, he's pulled off a series of thefts that no one seems able to stop.

New York City, 1972.Bobby Comfort and Sammy “the Arab” Nalo were highly skilled jewel thieves who specialized in robbing luxury Manhattan hotels. With the blessing of the Lucchese Crime Family, their next plot targeted the posh Pierre Hotel—host to kings and queens, presidents and aldermen, and the wealthiest of the wealthy. Attired in tuxedoes and driven in a limousine, this band of thieves arrived at the Pierre, seized the security guards and, in systematically choreographed moves, swiftly took the night staff—and several unfortunate guests who happened to be roaming about the lobby—as hostages.The deposit boxes inside the vault chamber were plundered and the gentlemanly thieves departed in their limousine with a haul of $28 million. But then matters began to deteriorate. The authorities immediately suspected Comfort and Nalo of masterminding The Pierre ambush and arrested them, but the veteran criminals kept their mouths shut. The Lucchese Family funneled a $500,000 bribe to the presiding judge to quash the charges—and to this day The Pierre Hotel caper remains unsolved.