Encyclopedia Brown Collection

by Donald J. Sobol

This collection of works include: Encylopedia Brown's Book of Strange But True Crimes Encylopedia Brown Carries On Encylopedia Brown Sets the Pace Encylopedia Brown Takes the Cake!

Genres: Childrens, Juvenile

394 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

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

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forget which books I read in the series but I remember a conversation that was influential to my feminism:
mean boy: "all girls like pink!"
sally: "that's not true, I like yellow"

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really has two distinct parts. One of which I'd rate a 2 and the other a 4 so this is how it shook out.

I originally thought this would be just a compilation of the Encyclopedia Brown cases, but there's a whole beginning section that is just a series of bizarre crime stories. I feel like there was a recurring section in a newspaper I used to read that had "Stupid Criminal" anecdotes --it was formatted much like that. It goes on for so long that I was honestly confused, but then we finally get to the cases and solutions.

I don't know how much the first part will really appeal to kids. The topic or the format. I can say that both my son and I were impatient with it and ended up skipping most of it. Most of the cases though, stood up better than I expected as brain teasers, in spite of Sobol's *wild" character name choices and occasional dated slang, and to my surprise, my young test reader didn't seem to mind either-he just enjoyed the challenge of guessing the giveaway, just like I had when I was a kid.

[John Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant children's books that many of today's teens and adults wil not figure out. I loved this series as a kid.