I have great memories of reading books in the Encyclopedia Brown series when I was in grade school. OK, I will admit, I also read them when I was older.

Earlier this week I saw a blog post on Story Carnivores about Donald Sobol, the author of the series. Sobol passed away earlier this month at the age of 87.

After reading the post, I decided to check my shelves to see if I could find one of the books. I found Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All, and sat down for a good read full of memories.

Encyclopedia Brown – He did solve them all.

I love the way that the books are set up. They are a series of cases that Encyclopedia solves, but the answer to how he solves the case is not given in the story. Instead, you can think through the clues and see if you can find the solution before turning to the back of the book to check your work. A bit like those math problems in your math text book :-).

Did you get the solution right?

Most of the cases are centered around Encyclopedia’s detective agency. He charges 25 cents a case plus expenses and runs his agency out of his garage. Along with his friend Sally he is always helping the other kids in town with their problems and helping them get their money back when they are cheated. Of course he also has his nemesis, Bugs Meany, to contend with and is always after Wilford Wiggins to disprove his dishonest money making schemes.

No case too small.

When growing up, I always identified with Encyclopedia Brown. Of course, his real name was Leroy, but his nickname came from the knowledge that he gained from reading the encyclopedia and many other books. I was known as the Little Professor growing up, and today I sometimes hear the nickname Stevepedia.

Today, at the library, I checked to see which Encyclopedia Brown books they had on the shelf and came home with five of them. I have already finished two of them :-). Maybe I will probably get the rest through interlibrary loan. Sobol wrote 28 books in the series, and there is still one more that is scheduled to be released. Sobol was still writing earlier this year.

Library Books

Hopefully another generation of young readers will enjoy these great stories that make you think.

Stevepedia