Cheryl writes in with this question:
My 72 year old father’s favorite book is The Hurricane Kids on the Lost Islands by Oskar Lebeck and Gaylord DuBois. He read it as a teen. I was able to find it in a used book store a few years ago and gave it to him as a Christmas present. He was very touched. At the end of this book, the authors mention a sequel to the book titled The Hurricane Kids in the Canyon of Cliff Dwellers. I have searched and searched and have never been able to find this book. Was it ever published? If not, does anyone know what happened? I’m just curious. If the book exists… I would love to find it and if it isn’t too expensive… I’d like to give it to my Dad.
Unfortunately, it appears as though a sequel to Hurricane Kids never made it. Sometimes referred to as a “King Kong clone” the original Hurricane Kids was an adventure tale from 1941, very much in keeping with the adventure stories and comics of the era. However, in my searches at bookfinder.com (which will almost invariably list any book you might be looking for) and the Library of Congress site the promised sequel never turned up. I also found a reference in William Barton’s story “Off on a Starship” from a 2003 science fiction collectionto a sequel sending the “Hurricane Kids” to “the Land of the Cave Dwellers,” but that title turned out to be a dead end as well.
Still, there may be some other books out there that might interest your father. Oskar Lebeck, though he co-wrote Hurricane Kids, was best known as an editor of comics at Dell in the 1940s and 50s. Prior to that he was a stage designer and book illustrator. He would also write children’s books, and co-create a popular science fiction comic called Twin Earths, which surmised an alien planet that orbited opposite ours, always hidden by the sun. DuBois, meanwhile, was first hired by Lebeck at Dell but would go on to become better known as the writer of the Tarzan comic for 25 years. Apparently, the “Hurricane Kids” also appeared as a comic in Dell’s magazine Popular Comics; note the mention on this cover from 1941. But what is most likely to interest your father is two other books that Lebeck and DuBois wrote together. I wasn’t able to ascertain exactly what these books are about, but the titles certainly speak of more adventure: Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress and Rex, King of the Deep.
Thanks for the question, Cheryl!