Ten More Mysteries with the World’s Smartest Ten-Year-Old
It’s been several years since I last matched wits with Encyclopedia Brown. I decided to spend a little time rereading one of the books I have around the condo, so I picked up Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way, which happens to be the ninth book in the series.
While not quite as well known as The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, this is another classic middle grade mystery series. And yes, the series is an older series. This particular book has a copyright of 1972.
The main character is Leroy Brown, but most people call him Encyclopedia Brown because of his encyclopedic knowledge. Each book in the series features 10 short mysteries for you to solve along with Encyclopedia. There’s some little detail that solves the case, and you have to pick up on it. Then, you can turn to the back of the book to see if you were right or not. While he will often help out his father, the chief of police, in a couple of stories (almost always the first one in the book), he usually spends the rest of the book helping his friends solve cases around the neighborhood. Often, these cases involve Bugs Meany, the neighborhood bully, or Bugs’s gang The Tigers. And at least once we run into Wilford Wiggins, who is attempting to swindle kids out of their money.
What cases does Encyclopedia take on this time around? He helps his father prove who stole an electric drill. He helps a kid get his harmonica back from Bugs. When a girl wants to figure out who got her kicked off a baseball team, Encyclopedia Brown takes the case. He figures out who stole a rattlesnake rattle from a display at a museum. And he helps a friend who thinks he saw a ghost.
Obviously, there are more stories in the book, but this should give you some idea of what we deal with here. As I said, each story is short – easy to read in just a few minutes. Then, I often find myself pondering what I missed for a few second before I flip to the back. Even all these years later, I often miss the vital clue, although sometimes I know I’m on the right track. I just can’t pick up on the detail. So I’m proud when I solve any before turning to the end of the book. This time around, it was three and a half, which is a little above average for me.
Given how short the stories are, there aren’t really any twists to the story. We learn the problem, Encyclopedia gets a few minutes at the scene, and then he solves things. But for this story, that’s all we really need. It works well, and it will give kids with short attention spans something to enjoy.
This also means the characters are fairly thin. There just isn’t time for more than one or two traits. But that’s okay. They are developed enough to have fun with them. And the kids who are reading it won’t care.
Being a middle grade series, you can read these books in any order. The little background you need is provided for you.
I do wonder just how dated today’s kids will find the stories. Heck, for most of them, what is an Encyclopedia? Most of the clues and stories themselves aren’t dated, but a world without computers or cell phones might seem foreign to many of today’s kids.
It was a pleasure to spend a little time again with Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way. I hope he’s not too dated for today’s kids to enjoy.
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