Smart kids love solving the mysteries presented in the Encyclopedia Brown series of books by author Donald J. Sobol.
As a parent, I like Encyclopedia Brown books because they encourage kids to read carefully and to notice and remember the details of what they are reading. I also like that our hero, Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown, is celebrated for being smart. He is nicknamed “Encyclopedia” because his brain is filled with knowledge gained by reading a lot of books.
Encyclopedia Brown is a super-smart ten year old detective. He lives with his parents in the fictional town of Idaville where his father is the local police chief. Each Encyclopedia Brown book is a collection of short mystery stories solved by Encyclopedia Brown (often with the help of his partner Sally Kimball) by finding a mistake or inconsistency in a suspect’s story. The fun of reading Encyclopedia Brown books is trying to solve each mystery without peeking at the solutions in the back of the book.
Following are a list of the books in the Encyclopedia Brown series in order of first publication:
- Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (1963)
- Encyclopedia Brown Strikes Again (1965)
- Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues (1966)
- Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man (1967)
- Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All (1968)
- Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace (1969)
- Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day (1970)
- Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down (1971)
- Encyclopedia Brown Shows The Way (1972)
- Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case (1973)
- Encyclopedia Brown Lends a Hand (1974)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles (1975)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Midnight Visitor (1977)
- Encyclopedia Brown Carries On (1980)
- Encyclopedia Brown Sets the Pace (1981)
- Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake (1982)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Mysterious Handprints (1985)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt (1988)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers (1990)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Two Spies (1995)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablo’s Nose (1996)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog (1998)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Slippery Salamander (2000)
- Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Jumping Frogs (2003)
- Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case (2007)
- Encyclopedia Brown, Super Sleuth (2009)
I loved reading Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. I read one after another and vividly recall my disappointed when I ran out of new ones to read. I moved on to read The Great Brain books by John D. Fitzgerald - which had a similarly brainy main character and were good, but not quite the same.
Buy Encyclopedia Brown books through Amazon at the KidCrunch Store.
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