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Children's book, radio, and DVD series about a group of kids who live near Sugar Creek in Indiana, who solve mysteries and go on adventures. Originally started in 1939, and still sold today. Very Christian in theme, with many overt references to Jesus, the Bible, and (the Christian) God coming from the characters' dialog and internal monologue. Despite that, the actual stories themselves are a mix between Slice of Life and "Hardy Boys in a rural setting" than anything else, and play out like kids' adventures that just happen to have lots of Christian references.
The Christian references are toned down considerably in the movies, either to make them less preachy or to make them more enjoyable to a non-Christian audience. The movies also take one of the boy characters and instead make him a girl, to add a girl to the cast.
Not to be confused with the Sugar Hill Gang.
- The Chick - In the DVDs only, Circus, a boy, becomes a girl. And acts tomboyish and tough.
- Deep South - The setting.
- Does Not Like Shoes - These kids don't, seriously. In the movies, the girl likes them less than the boys do.
- And thus gets a lot of Foot Focus, including one scene that starts with an extreme close-up of her bare feet as she walks across a log in one of the movies.
- Fair for Its Day - Kindness towards the disabled was a theme in some of the books, putting them a little ahead of their time. Also, one of the boys learns the hard way that girls aren't all the gender stereotype he'd assumed they were (in this case, easily grossed out and frightened of bugs).
- Free-Range Children
- Kid Detective
- Sibling Team - There are a few in the gang.
- Unfortunate Implications - It's implied in many of the books that non-Christians are either bad people, or people with serious issues.
- For example, when the gang rescues a kidnapped 5-year-old who was Bound and Gagged and wrapped in a blanket, the narrator (one of the gang) says "there are some people in this world who have no respect for God or people."
- On the "people with issues" side, one latecomer to the gang is said to be angry and mean to people before he converts to Christianity, due to having not been raised Christian and having an atheist father.
- Values Dissonance - The treatment of girls and some racist elements show the time the books were written. This could be one reason a tomboyish girl was added in the movies.
- One "of-the-times" example of this is here.
