Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime

Encyclopedia Brown #27

by Donald J. Sobol

Ten exciting new adventures for the famous boy detective!

Everyone's favorite fifth-grade gumshoe is back on the case! Following the classic Encyclopedia Brown formula, this installment presents ten mysteries, complete with answers at the end of the book that allow the reader to solve the cases along with the boy detective. Join Encyclopedia Brown as he takes on cases of giant diamonds, lazy lions, a country singer, and of course a trip to the carnival.

“I loved Encyclopedia Brown as a kid.”—Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
 

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Short Stories, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Classics

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2011

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]

Young readers always bring a sense of excitement when you sit down to read with them. Neo and I have been doing this for a while, from board books to short pieces that help build his vocabulary. I chose to move into something that has generational sentiment to me when I pointed him in the direction of Donald J. Sobol’s books about Encyclopedia Brown. I read them (and had them read to me) as a child and now it is time for me to open up Neo’s mind and get him training to b a young sleuth. Leroy ‘Encyclopedia’ Brown is the most unlikely fifth grader you’ll ever meet. His father is the Chief of Police in Idaville, though it is young Encyclopedia who seems to be able to solve many of the crimes and mysteries that take place. In this collection, Encyclopedia tackles many mysteries—some solved over the evening meal with his parents, while others come from his own ‘Brown Detective Agency’—and seems able to solve them by asking a single question. With the clues buried inside each story, it is a five-minute experience before getting to the heart of the mystery. Sobol leaves it for the reader to determine if they can solve the case before pointing them in the direction of the solution at the end of the book. This collection included fake baseballs, stolen music, and false claims of carnival winning, as well as many others. Neo quite liked that he could sit and listen before trying to crack the mystery. He would sometimes be quite confident, while at other times, he needed a nudge in the right direction. Fun for young and experienced reader alike, the clues are there to find, but it will take an attentive reader to extract them in time. A wonderful collection of short mysteries that will keep you guessing with each page turn.

This book fulfils Topic #3: The Next Generation, of the Equinox #8 Book Challenge.

[Am Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both children and adults alike will enjoy this book of short mysteries. There are 10 cases altogether, each featuring a crime that the protagonist helps to solve. Each story is several pages long, and at the end of it, you are asked how the protagonist knew who did it. I read the ebook version, and there is a link at the end of the chapter to the solution at the end of the book, so you can just click on it to jump there straightaway. Most of the cases were fun to think about and solve, and came with varying difficulty levels.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the extra funny details some of these have. This one is particularly rich. One mystery happens on a group camping trip, and the other families are named Donner, Muir, and Rose... as in the son is named Teddy Rose.... I'll leave it to you to see the gentle parody of country-western music titles.

Do any of you know any other sources of puzzles like this? Maybe a little harder? My husband and I went through a whole box of cards from the game Mindtrap and really were sad when it was done. We still have fun with trivia cards scavenged from games found in thrift stores, but logic puzzles, including those that do require, for example, a knowledge of one of the special things about diamonds, are more interesting to us (and more timeless). Please recommend websites, books, board games, apps...!

[Andrew Wolgemuth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these books as a kid, and now my 9yo and 7yo love reading them with me. I dominate in solving the mysteries alongside Encyclopedia, but my daughters are learning.

[Scott Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! There are a lot of thieves living in Idaville!

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny quotes!! "They were so underhanded that sometimes they had trouble raising their arms over their heads." Pg 12,

Again, love this classic detective series!

[Kevin Hogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these stories, but I wasn't sold on some of the solutions. Most of them are logical and fine, but there's something that leaves me thinking, "But what if..."

Vanished Sculpture - I agree that this is the most likely solution. But it's not proof. It's a well-informed hunch.

Glittering Diamonds - Again, the information is correct. But what if Bugs just didn't know that fact? Then his actions would be completely logical.

Tempting Toys - Yeah, or Cooper might just be good with dogs. This just isn't proof that would hold up in an investigation or a court case.

Missing Songs - How do we know that she didn't tell him after the fact?

Home-Run Hitter - This was the best story in the book. I could come up with a "yes, but" response, but the solution is pretty solid.

Lazy Lion - Again, is this more than a hunch?

Explorer's Map - A good solution. The second strongest story in this book.

Arrowhead Hunters - No problems here. This story also works well.

Courageous Camper - Okay, now we get back to that "yes, but" thought from the Home-Run Hitter story. Is a single incorrect detail in a second-hand story enough to dismiss the entire thing as a lie? Could it be a bad memory of the original storyteller? A detail mixed up in translation?

Carnival Crime - The solution is fine, but the detail in the solution stood out a bit too much for me. If it could have been done a bit more subtlely, the story would be better.

Altogether, some solid stories and solutions, with some others that leave me wondering. A fun collection, but not the best in the series.

[Chance Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad. Figured out six out of ten mysteries.

Cover
This cover is... Interesting. It's tied to the last (tenth) mystery. I have to say Encyclopedia and the girl on the Farris Wheel look ticked on this cover. I don't know maybe that's Sally Kimball.

Interior
Story
I love how they introduce Leroy's father. Whenever he has a tough case he just goes home to eat. I get that it's so that he can consult is son but really the way it's put is way too funny.
I'm surprised Bugs Meany only appears in one mystery in this book and there aren't a whole lot of weird idioms.
The mysteries seemed easier in this book. Maybe I'm getting better at catching clues.

Illustrations
The illustrations are nice and decently complex. By the way I never caught on with the illustrations that Encyclopedia always has a magnifying glass in his back pocket where ever he goes. They are beautifully done.

After Thoughts
The layout of these mysteries is the strangest to me. The first mystery starts is a museum theft focused at the kitchen table before going to the garage detective business. Finally we are introduced to the carnival (before it starts) in the third mystery. Like how the second book bookended the mysteries with baseball, this one could have pulled off a similar style of starting and ending at a carnival, even if they did go to a circus, museum, and a concert between the mysteries.

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this book, mostly because as a kid I loved reading Encyclopedia Brown books. Though this was not one of the books I read then, (the copyright was 2011), this book was still a nostalgic journey down memory lane.

As with the other Encyclopedia Brown books, there are 10 mysteries that occur in the town of Idaville which Encyclopedia helps to solve. These mysteries include:
- A sculpture that was stolen from a museum
- Bugs Meany trying to scam the neighborhood kids with a diamond
- Toys stolen from the fair
- A country singer wrote new songs that have been stolen
- Was a baseball really hit by Babe Ruth?
- Why would a lion turn down a pile of steaks?
- Was the map a high school senior a true map from Columbus?
- Who stole the arrowheads?
- Was the courageous camper really so courageous?
- How could Encyclopedia get the medal won back from one of the Tigers?

These are easy to solve for adults given that it is written for a younger age group. With that said, I would recommend it to kids ages 6 – 12, (depending upon their reading level), and to adults that grew up reading the books.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was the final Encyclopedia Brown book published, and it's different from the others in that there is no Wilford Wiggins, Sally Kimball is an ancillary detective in only two stories, and there aren't any stories where Bugs Meany or one of his flunkies tries to frame Encyclopedia and Sally while stupid Officer Carlson stands around being confused.

I solved all of these except for one.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, once again proves that crime does not pay as he solves ten different mysteries involving a stolen sculpture, fake diamonds, circus crimes, and various other cases that will keep the reader on their toes as Encyclopedia trips up the would be criminals, and solves the cases.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated; 25 cents per case is a joke. But each mystery is nice and short, a perfect bedtime read.

I loved Encyclopedia Brown when I was a kid, but I remember the mysteries being difficult to solve. These were easier than I remember, but maybe because I’m an adult... :)

[The Jesus Fandom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d never heard of this character before, so it was actually pretty cool to find out it’s a “solve the mystery yourself” book. For some of the mysteries, you needed to know information not everyone could have (who knows baseball rules? Not me.)

[Bethany Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

First one of these I read. They are pretty cool

[aem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute for middle graders - makes them use reasoning, logic and attention to detail.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another buddy read with my dad, but unlike other EB books I had never actually read this one before!

[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!

[Kim Sandve]

Donald Sobol, you haunt me and my boss... but finally... finally... we have bested you (by finding a clean, unoffensive book)

[Janet Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery

I love these books and all the fun of trying to solve the mysteries, but I wish that they would be easier to solve.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encyclopedia Brown was one of my gateway drugs into mysteries. As a kid, I always tried to figure out the solution before I read it in the back. Not always successful, but I did try!

Rereading them as an adult was straight-up nostalgia. The formula I remember from childhood was still there (you start to notice it when you read a lot of this series, especially in a row). The first puzzle is always from the Chief, told around the dinner table, the second is at the Brown Detective Agency. There is always at least one case with Bugs Meany and the Tigers, including a corny expression or pun about how crooked they are. And Sally is the junior detective, Encyclopedia's muscle, and both the prettiest girl and the best athlete.

And I still learn a little each time I read these! Despite the formula, they are great for building critical thinking with kids. Short stories let you get right into the puzzle, and are quick for short attention spans or quick reads when you only have a few minutes. And sometimes the puzzle depends on some obscure facts, but you learn a little then too.

Encyclopedia debuted in the mid-60s. I was reading them 25+ years ago. And I'd still recommend them to budding mystery readers.

[Eric Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Encyclopedia Brown when I was growing up, I had a lot of fun reading them again with my eldest daughter, and now my middle daughter is interested - this is the first I've read with her being directly interested. As always, ten stories, each with a little twist to use to figure out what happened. My only complaint is that it seems more stories than normal are about older kids trying to steal from the little kids, most often with some get-rich-quick scheme. I wish that, for once, Encyclopedia Brown would just let the kids lose their money to the teenagers, and then perhaps they'd learn their lesson and stop believing them. Encyclopledia has to teach those kids to fish rather than catching a fish for them over and over again :-)

[Marissa Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad my daughter is into this series of books! Unlike most novels for this reading level, there's no obnoxious bullying, bad words to pick up, or people picking on their little siblings. Each case has a criminal, to be sure, but the culprit readily admits wrongdoing and either slinks off or tries to make amends. All the characters here are polite; Encyclopedia doesn't even gloat while accusing his peers of criminal activities.

With 10 mysteries to solve, this book enables kids to test their reasoning skills.

[gudetamama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these books as a kid. Now that I think about it though, this isn't so much about a clever Sherlockian piecing together of clues, as it is about being able to spot inconsistencies in stories. Save for the one about the Spanish map and the museum janitor, Encyclopedia Brown solved cases because the perpetrator was a terrible liar, and usually talked too much. People who lie with too much detail eventually let something slip, or use an inaccurate detail, and that gives them away.

So remember kids: If you have to make up a story, stick to the facts, and lie by omission.

[midnightfaerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book my 6 yr old loved, a little old for my preschoolers. A solid reading level 2 book, this reader has a good amount of advanced vocabulary words, but not so long that it discourages a new reader. Used it for his read out loud book, which was perfect. It took about 15 mins for him to read and had just enough new vocabulary words to make it challenging. Also, it was a fun and interesting story he could get into. He liked it so much, he asked for more by this author. Great reading book!

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were some of my favorite books when I was a kid and so I wanted to re-read. These are so great for building reading skills while developing critical thinking skills. I remember going on a big mystery kick for several years because of these. Thank you, Donald Sobol.

P.S. Would these be called Wikipedia Brown if first written today? ;)

[Rana Ansari · Rating 1 out of 5]

My nine year old and I found Encyclopedia Brown's techniques of solving mysteries, incredibly lame. My nine year old said, "whoever solves mysteries based ONLY on what one says...?"
I told him Encyclopedia Brown has the potential to be a Psychiatrist.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little monkey went and read this one without me. Feels like she's sneaking around with books now!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, this would be a good book for children between 1st and 2nd grade. I liked the story, but it was a bit too easy (because I am in third grade).

[Friend of Pixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logan is still loving these short little mysteries that the reader gets to solve.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Liked it