Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog

Encyclopedia Brown #21

by Donald J. Sobol, Warren Chang

1. The Case of the Shower Singers
2. The Case of the Invisible Writing
3. The Case of the Stolen Fan
4. The Case of the Sleeping Dog
5. The Case of the Fire Thieves
6. The Case of the Mouse Show
7. The Case of the Tied-up Twins
8. The Case of the Wilford's Big Deal
9. The Case of the Fake Soup Can
10.The Case of the Shoeshine War

Will Wilford Wiggins finally part the kids of Idaville from their hard-earned allowances? Can Encyclopedia stop Sally from belting Bugs Meany into the next millennium? What happens when performance art comes to Idaville? To find the answers—and to solve the mysteries of the sleepy beagle and the shower singers—read the continuing adventures of the world's most famous boy detective!

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Short Stories, Classics

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Donald J. Sobol was an award-winning writer best known for his children's books, especially the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series. Mr. Sobol passed away in July of 2012.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neo and I enjoy reading these sets of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, having read many of the books. We quickly read this group of stories, filled with some unique mysteries we can process in a few minutes, connecting with one another as we guess the all but obvious solutions. The kid detective still works his magic in Idaville, USA, keeping the town crime-free and collecting his coins from those who can pay. Encyclopedia helps with the state shower singing championship (!!), prove Bugs Meany is framing him, and witnesses a food saying beak-off! These wonderful five-minute mysteries seek to entertain and exercise the brain of both child and adult, but require some keen sleuthing. Neo and I have used them as a before bedtime activity and we are getting much better at piecing the clues together in a timely manner. Young sleuths in the making may want to sharpen their skills with the massive collection of stories.

Neo really likes the stories that keep him thinking. I remember having these stories read to me when I was young as well, helping me want to pass along the tradition. Neo thoroughly enjoys listening to the stories and making an effort to uncover the clues that will help solve the cases. He mentioned that these are perfect stories for parent-child reading, but would be great for a good reader when they have time or are on a road trip. A note to parents: the stories are dated (even as they author writes in the 1990s) and some of the terminology or word choices might not be as correct as you would like your young reader to use on a daily basis.

Did you know Neo’s has his own GR account for reviews? Check him out: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Donald J. is definitely cribbing from his own canon. For a more virtuous trip down memory lane, stick with the earlier entries.

[Neo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy the reading my dad does of these sets of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, having read many of the books. We quickly read this group of stories, filled with some unique mysteries we can process in a few minutes, connecting with one another as we guess the all but obvious solutions. The kid detective still works his magic in Idaville, USA, keeping the town crime-free and collecting his coins from those who can pay. Encyclopedia helps with the state shower singing championship (!!), prove Bugs Meany is framing him, and witnesses a food saying beak-off! These wonderful five-minute mysteries seek to entertain and exercise the brain of both child and adult, but require some keen sleuthing. We have used them as a before bedtime activity and we are getting much better at piecing the clues together in a timely manner. Young sleuths in the making may want to sharpen their skills with the massive collection of stories.

I love that the stories keep me thinking. These stories read to my dad when he was young as well, helping us want to pass along the tradition. I enjoy listening to the stories and making an effort to uncover the clues that will help solve the cases. These are perfect stories for parent-child reading, but would be great for a good reader when they have time or are on a road trip. A note to parents: the stories are dated (even as they author writes in the 1990s) and some of the word choices might not be as correct as you would like your young reader to use on a daily basis.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just in the middle between great and awesome, is how you describe Sleeping Dog. Cases get more intriguing and impressively visualized, and your mind gets tested better than ever. Some lacking parts in the book like usual, but still something worth eying at.

[Scott Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leroy Brown continues to fight horrible evil in Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog. Will criminals ever realize it is a bad idea to commit illegal acts in Idaville?

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another installment in Donald Sobel's apparently never-ending series about the boy detective. Nothing too new here but still a fun way to spend a minute or two. Perfect bathroom reading

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book, especially for kids ages 8 - 10.

[Arisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

-1 star for fat-shaming.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid I loved these mysteries, but as an adult I feel like they're almost too obtuse. But kid me loved them, so I guess the author did something right.

[Kevin Hogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably solved fewer of these than in any other book. I definitely should have had a few of them, but there were a couple that might not really give the information necessary for a conclusive solution. However, a few of them did, so I've got to give the author credit for stumping me a few times.

Shower Singers - An unusual premise, woven into the standard soup-time investigation. I got the right answer, but not the way it's written in the solution. I figured out the list of words and reasoned that the first one was #1. Partial credit, maybe?

Invisible Writing - I figured out the basic premise of the solution but missed a word in the story that would have brought it all together. Don't know that I can claim partial credit on this one.

Stolen Fan - I saw where the clue was but didn't put it together. Off to a rough start on this book.

Sleeping Dog - The slump continues. I didn't read that line as necessarily indicating that was the guilty party. I appreciate how the author tried to get there. It seemed like a strange response but, even reading back, it doesn't seem conclusive.

Fig Thieves - Didn't get this one. Maybe I was particularly tired when reading this book?

Mouse Show - Got it! Although this was pretty straightforward...

Tied-Up Twins - Again, it seemed like the story was trying to lead the reader to the answer.

Wilford's Big Deal - Got this one. Perhaps a bit similar to a recurring element in solutions. And it doesn't necessarily say that the plane is facing north, just that it was at the northern end of the airport, but it could have taxied in a loop.

Fake Soup Can - So implausible that people would go to that effort and come up with that plan, of all things.

Shoeshine War - A decent story. One of the better final stories in a while.

[Niffer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been reading the Encyclopedia Brown books to a senior cat I took in about a year ago after his owner died. He's not the friendliest cat, but reading to him for half an hour or so every night seems to make him happy. (Or it may be the treats I give him when I'm done.)

The Encyclopedia Brown books have been a good choice for reading aloud. I read 3-4 stories a night. The language is easy enough I don't feel like I'm stumbling, and the mysteries are entertaining enough to keep me from getting bored. Plus there's lots of humor scattered throughout.

Or there was. I started reading the books in order, but somewhere around book 13, the books stopped having numbers on them so I've just grabbed a few at a time off the library shelf. I've definitely noticed a real drop in quality with the newer books. The stories have gotten shorter. There's not as much humor in them. And the solutions have gotten weak. The book was definitely the worst I've read. It was a good 20 pages shorter than the original books and all the stories felt rushed and hastily thrown together.

I really loved reading these books as a kid and reading them to my cat was a wonderful walk down memory lane when I started. But after this book I'm done. I'm so very disappointed by what they've become.

[Vidyuth Gowtham]

good
1. The Case of the Shower Singers
2. The Case of the Invisible Writing
3. The Case of the Stolen Fan
4. The Case of the Sleeping Dog
5. The Case of the Fire Thieves
6. The Case of the Mouse Show
7. The Case of the Tied-up Twins
8. The Case of the Wilford's Big Deal
9. The Case of the Fake Soup Can
10.The Case of the Shoeshine War

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun kids book with some good mysteries. They're easy for adults to solve, but kids would have to think about them. I had a lot of fun reading this when I was young, and it's still enjoyable.

It's also nice to see an almost thirty year old book having Sally be the athletic character.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun puzzle book for an easy read. Definitely looking forward to reading more of these short stories to try and keep my brain firing on all cylinders!

[Manny Stockman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

I think that it’s a nice children’s book but the mysteries would be too hard to solve. Some of them.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good EB book; they seemingly go on forever!

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked it

[Children's Literature Project]

Grade level is 4, lexile measure is 610L. Encylopedia Brown is a boy detective. This book is 10 different mysteries with the solutions in te back. Definitely read-aloud material to work on observations and predictions.

[Sandberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love Encyclopedia Brown books!~Ava

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Encyclopedia Brown series as a kid, tho' I could not get any of my kids fired up about them

[DJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

majority of the stories were obvious and easy to solve unlike the others. Good book nonetheless.

[WSL Library]

X2

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it very much it is a very good mys

[Jennasis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great childrens series about a younf boy detective. He solves the mysteries that go on in his town with the help of his friends and insight from his father the police officer.

[Mskychick]

Placeholder for re-read of Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

[Canavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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