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Tom Swift Jr. #12
Tom Swift in The Race to the Moon
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180 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
Victor Appleton II
117Ìýbooks21Ìýfollowerssee also Victor Appleton
The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 9, 2020
I still love these after all these years. I can’t really explain why.
August 23, 2021
Love all these books since I was a kid. A fascinating snapshot of YA reading, science fiction and adventure writing, this series of a fictional boy scientist adventurer ranks among the big pop culture influences for real-world scientists, engineers, and explorers of a certain gee-whiz era of American Exceptionalism.
June 28, 2015
The Tom Swift, Jr., books were a fun, upbeat, and interesting adventure series published for kids from 1954 to 1971 that promoted science, fair-play, patriotism, and team-work; they were good, positive books. The series served as a sequel to the original Tom Swift series that appeared from 1910 to the beginnings of World War II; Tom and his sister, Sandy, are the children of the first Tom and his wife, Mary Nestor; Tom's girlfriend Phyllis Newton is the daughter of Tom Sr.'s sidekick Ned Newton (now Uncle Ned to Tom and Sandy); the family home is still located in Shopton along Lake Carlopa, etc. It's nice that the continuity is preserved rather than just being over-written as happened to The Hardy Boys; in the first Tom Jr., book beings make contact that were first hinted at in the final real Tom Sr., book, Planet Stone, and throughout the series references to the history are made such as naming a device the Damonscope in honor of a character from the first series, Mr. Wakefield Damon. In addition to the Swifts and Newtons, Tom Jr. has his own sidekick, Bud Barclay, and there are several interesting supporting characters such as Phil Radnor, Harlan Ames (I wonder if Harlan Ellison was the inspiration for the name?), Hank Sterling, Miss Trent (who I don't believe ever had a first name), and especially Chow Winkler, Tom's cook, a former "Texas chuck-wagon" cook who was given to a variety of wild and unlikely expressions such as, "Well, brand my space biscuits!" The earlier books had nice covers, end-papers, and illustrations: Graham Kaye and Charles Brey provided the art for the first twenty-five volumes, followed by Edward Moretz, after which the artistic (as well as the literary) quality starting going downhill. Tom invented and built many fantastic inventions (but remember it was the '50s and '60s), and had many exciting adventures along with his friends and family. They faced off against saboteurs and spies and the evil Brungarians but their good spirits and hard work and can-do attitude always paid off in the end. The continuity didn't always hold logically from book to book, and looking back it's easy to pick apart one thing or another, but they were fun and fine books in their time. This twelfth volume has a good cover showing the spaceship Challenger (and what an ironic name is that!) looking like a Tinker-Toy gyroscope. I believe this is the volume where a computer is mentioned that weighs twenty tons!
January 31, 2013
I got this for my eighth birthday, and so it was probably the first "novel" I ever read. I became immediately hooked on Tom Swift Jr. So I would have gotten this in 1963, and it was written in 1958, before any people had even been in space. Part of the delight of this book is the highly unconventional structure of Tom's spaceship, a round open structure that doesn't need to be streamlined, thanks to the repelatron, an invention from one of Tom's previous books that will repel whatever elements you set it to repel. This race to the Moon is not against Russians, but against the dastardly Brungarians, Brungaria being a made-up South American country. So yeah, there were probably some unfortunate ethnic stereotypes that were put into play here. With all I've written here I've just about exhausted everything I remember about this book, but it got me hooked on reading, and on science fiction, so bravo.
May 20, 2009
To be fair, I read this as an adult and although I like a lot of YA fiction this one didn't do much for me. I'd probably liked it a lot more when I was a kid but we didn't have these books at our library.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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