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Encyclopedia Brown #1-2
Encyclopedia Brown Mysteries, Volume 1: Boy Detective; The Case of the Secret Pitch
This volume includes:
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective and The Case of the Secret Pitch – two collections of mysteries that Encyclopedia Brown must solve by using his famous computerlike brain.
A cross-eyed baseball pitch...
A kid-lover tumed kidnapper...
A watermelon stabbing...
A trapeze artist's inheritance...
These are just some of the brain-twisters included. Try to crack the cases along with him--the answers to all the mysteries are found in the back!
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective and The Case of the Secret Pitch – two collections of mysteries that Encyclopedia Brown must solve by using his famous computerlike brain.
A cross-eyed baseball pitch...
A kid-lover tumed kidnapper...
A watermelon stabbing...
A trapeze artist's inheritance...
These are just some of the brain-twisters included. Try to crack the cases along with him--the answers to all the mysteries are found in the back!
Audio CD
First published October 14, 2003
3 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Donald J. Sobol
183 books224 followersDonald 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.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 1, 2015
So I listened to the audiobook of these. It's an easy way to kill a couple hours. Wasn't in love with the narration, as some of the voices came across as a bit squeaky or silly. That's not necessarily a bad thing considering the audience, but could come across as condescending.
Enough of format, on to content. This is an audiobook collection of the first two Encyclopedia Brown books. I've gone back to revisit this after being reminded of having read these pretty voraciously when I was in the target demographic. I still remember some of the trivia learned from reading these.
With greater perspective, I appreciate the desire to teach logical thought and attention to detail. However, these are significantly less engaging to me now as then. On the plus side, they're all over quickly, so they never really overstay their welcome. The first collection does a better job of maintaining logical consistency, whereas the second has more significant flaws.
The one thing that I don't recall noticing before...what on earth is up with Charlie Stewart? Does no one think it...odd...that he collects teeth? This boy has a jar of human teeth, and collects teeth of all other kinds. Did Mr. Brown somehow fail to observe this kid wearing all black while reading an EC horror comic inside a copy of M R James? He's going to be voted most likely to stuff another classmate in the trunk of a car. I just can't quite wrap my head around this kid.
Enough of format, on to content. This is an audiobook collection of the first two Encyclopedia Brown books. I've gone back to revisit this after being reminded of having read these pretty voraciously when I was in the target demographic. I still remember some of the trivia learned from reading these.
With greater perspective, I appreciate the desire to teach logical thought and attention to detail. However, these are significantly less engaging to me now as then. On the plus side, they're all over quickly, so they never really overstay their welcome. The first collection does a better job of maintaining logical consistency, whereas the second has more significant flaws.
The one thing that I don't recall noticing before...what on earth is up with Charlie Stewart? Does no one think it...odd...that he collects teeth? This boy has a jar of human teeth, and collects teeth of all other kinds. Did Mr. Brown somehow fail to observe this kid wearing all black while reading an EC horror comic inside a copy of M R James? He's going to be voted most likely to stuff another classmate in the trunk of a car. I just can't quite wrap my head around this kid.
May 25, 2022
Not for any particular reason, but over the last year I've reread some childhood favorites. But I'm listening to audiobooks this time around.
This great, awesome Leroy Brown likes to read about pretty much everything, so he knows about pretty much everything. And he doesn't seem to ever watch TV! In fact, he is a young Sherlock Holmes. This is the only thing he lives to do.
Except, all of his cases are five minute reads in this book (he's quick!), He is ten years old so I presume this book, in a way, is a collection of suburban Anywhere USA Sherlock Holmes-like stories for ten-year olds. It is not one long narrative. And it continues on this way in the second book, which is included with the original in this audiobook version.
There are some odd quirks about this book, originally published in 1965, when I was eight. His dad is the police chief. When they run into what we would call a homeless or unhoused person at a market entranceway, he's called "a beggar."
Later they run across what a year later we would begin to call a hippie, who turns out (spoiler alert) to be a bank robber. Before they realize that, the hitchhiker asks the cop, are you going to arrest me for hitchhiking?
The kids in the gang have names like Bugsy. In this audiobook version, the narrator makes them sound like the way a Busy would sound in a 1930s film noir.
The kid is clever. And a lot of what he encounters are gang members, liars, and conmen. So to me, the best thing about the book is that it teaches kids how not to get duped or bullied. There are some very bad people out there, kids! And not just the ones that offer you candy!
The oddest thing for me I noticed only because I'm also reading Harriet the Spy, about an eleven-year-old girl, who lives very specifically in Manhattan, who is also a very clever observer of the creepy people we all have to grow up amidst.
But there is a very big difference between the boy and girl who are only one year apart. Harriet can be sarcastic and impudent and really has a lot of personality. Encyclopedia has very little personality except for his one great talent and his wariness of people pulling a fast one. He's a generic good kid. You know he'll become an Eagle Scout when he becomes a teenager.
Makes me wonder if books for eleven-year-olds are actually quite different than books for ten-year-olds. That minimal personality for EB is my only gripe about the book.
I think this is a very good book for kids. I turned out to be like Encyclopedia myself, especially now at age 64. It's May as I write this and I've already read 60 books, ten more than my goal for the year–and not all of them are just at the ten-year-old level!
I can't help but think this book expanded how I thought of myself when I read it at eight.
This great, awesome Leroy Brown likes to read about pretty much everything, so he knows about pretty much everything. And he doesn't seem to ever watch TV! In fact, he is a young Sherlock Holmes. This is the only thing he lives to do.
Except, all of his cases are five minute reads in this book (he's quick!), He is ten years old so I presume this book, in a way, is a collection of suburban Anywhere USA Sherlock Holmes-like stories for ten-year olds. It is not one long narrative. And it continues on this way in the second book, which is included with the original in this audiobook version.
There are some odd quirks about this book, originally published in 1965, when I was eight. His dad is the police chief. When they run into what we would call a homeless or unhoused person at a market entranceway, he's called "a beggar."
Later they run across what a year later we would begin to call a hippie, who turns out (spoiler alert) to be a bank robber. Before they realize that, the hitchhiker asks the cop, are you going to arrest me for hitchhiking?
The kids in the gang have names like Bugsy. In this audiobook version, the narrator makes them sound like the way a Busy would sound in a 1930s film noir.
The kid is clever. And a lot of what he encounters are gang members, liars, and conmen. So to me, the best thing about the book is that it teaches kids how not to get duped or bullied. There are some very bad people out there, kids! And not just the ones that offer you candy!
The oddest thing for me I noticed only because I'm also reading Harriet the Spy, about an eleven-year-old girl, who lives very specifically in Manhattan, who is also a very clever observer of the creepy people we all have to grow up amidst.
But there is a very big difference between the boy and girl who are only one year apart. Harriet can be sarcastic and impudent and really has a lot of personality. Encyclopedia has very little personality except for his one great talent and his wariness of people pulling a fast one. He's a generic good kid. You know he'll become an Eagle Scout when he becomes a teenager.
Makes me wonder if books for eleven-year-olds are actually quite different than books for ten-year-olds. That minimal personality for EB is my only gripe about the book.
I think this is a very good book for kids. I turned out to be like Encyclopedia myself, especially now at age 64. It's May as I write this and I've already read 60 books, ten more than my goal for the year–and not all of them are just at the ten-year-old level!
I can't help but think this book expanded how I thought of myself when I read it at eight.
August 31, 2008
Reading this with PJ... These "mysteries" seemed do much harder to solve when I was 7. hmmm....
June 3, 2021
This is a fun read for adults and children. It is a series of small mysteries, each stands alone or can be read straight through.
The story: A young teenager nicknamed "Encyclopedia Brown" has set up a detective agency and will solve all crimes big and small for a quarter a day plus expenses. He usually doesn't need more than 1 day, and the clues he uses to solve the crimes are given to the reader as well. No big surprises in terms of the detective knowing something that the reader does not.
Any problems with these stories? Maybe a small one. As one might imagine there is a gang of troublemakers that Encyclopedia Brown thwarts at every turn, showing that smarts are better than brawn, but Encyclopedia Brown also solves crimes that adults commit. Thus brings up the subject: "Can adults lie?" Indeed they can, and I can't imagine many children's books that don't have some elements of this. I mention it so that you will know. Adults commit crimes in this book.
Any modesty issues? Not really. It depends on what you think is appropriate behavior for a young teenage girl who wants to be a detective like Encyclopedia Brown, but not necessarily a tomboy.
I wouldn't mind reading this book again... to kids. I might check out a few other books in the series.
The story: A young teenager nicknamed "Encyclopedia Brown" has set up a detective agency and will solve all crimes big and small for a quarter a day plus expenses. He usually doesn't need more than 1 day, and the clues he uses to solve the crimes are given to the reader as well. No big surprises in terms of the detective knowing something that the reader does not.
Any problems with these stories? Maybe a small one. As one might imagine there is a gang of troublemakers that Encyclopedia Brown thwarts at every turn, showing that smarts are better than brawn, but Encyclopedia Brown also solves crimes that adults commit. Thus brings up the subject: "Can adults lie?" Indeed they can, and I can't imagine many children's books that don't have some elements of this. I mention it so that you will know. Adults commit crimes in this book.
Any modesty issues? Not really. It depends on what you think is appropriate behavior for a young teenage girl who wants to be a detective like Encyclopedia Brown, but not necessarily a tomboy.
I wouldn't mind reading this book again... to kids. I might check out a few other books in the series.
January 21, 2024
I decided to give these a quick listen because I never got around to reading this series when I was a kid, Lo those many moons ago. But after the first little story, I suddenly recalled that there was a reason I had given them a pass. They just aren't my cuppa. (She persisted nonetheless.) I feel like the mysteries are either too simple, too dated, or too esoteric. I mean, the first book in this series came out in 1963+ and I wasn't born till 1975. If I tried them when I was 10, they were already 20+ years old! Some fiction is timeless; these are not. I don't hate them or anything; I just don't ever want to read them again, and I wouldn't offer them to kids today. I'm sure they were FiiiiiiNE when they first came out. But honestly, I bet I never would've read them in any decade. At age 10, I was into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other fantasy for kids (which was hard to find). By 12, I was reading VC Andrews by night and To Kill a Mockingbird by day, and enjoying both immensely! I don't think these ever would have made a blip on my radar. But! Having said that, I read the f^ck out of The Three Detectives! Jupiter Jones is obviously the superior sleuth. Go check those out and give these a miss.
April 16, 2024
Junot Diaz mentioned this series as one of his fondest childhood memories. The reader is Jason Harris and he does a great job. It is very old fashioned and very cute. I am going to try to get Ethan to read one of them, if he hasn't already.
May 19, 2018
A excellent way to introduce students to many literary elements.
September 8, 2019
Encyclopedia Brown's dad must be the worst cop on Earth, if his 10 year son is solving all his cases.
July 8, 2021
Good five-minute mysteries, but so very dated.
May 14, 2022
This was fun.
December 23, 2022
Perfect example of a synopsis for more in depth work later ob.
November 5, 2023
I loved these books as a kid growing up. Hoping my grandkids will love them as much as I did.
April 11, 2011
Leroy Brown is a genius. In fact, he has a reputation, if only at the dinner table, of solving his policeman father's cases when the police department is stumped. Encyclopedia Brown opens his own detective business, charging 25 cents per case, and has many children with mysteries come to him for help. Each story is short, presents the clues, then gives the reader an opportunity to solve the case before giving the reader the solution.
I never read these as a child, but there were many boys in my 3rd/4th grade classes who loved them. Kids who like puzzles will enjoy solving these short, somewhat dated and cheesy mysteries. The narrator of the audio book does a good job, but I keep thinking how nice it would be to be able to review the details of the case before trying to solve it.
I never read these as a child, but there were many boys in my 3rd/4th grade classes who loved them. Kids who like puzzles will enjoy solving these short, somewhat dated and cheesy mysteries. The narrator of the audio book does a good job, but I keep thinking how nice it would be to be able to review the details of the case before trying to solve it.
November 29, 2015
I listened to this audiobook for nostalgia. I used to read these books in gradeschool and enjoyed them. They are too simple to be a challenge for adults, but they are fun just the same.
It was interesting that after listening to one story, I asked my son when he thought it took place, and he said the 1950's. They never said a time period, but the general feel of things in the story hearkens back to a simpler time for kids, like to 1950's.
It was interesting that after listening to one story, I asked my son when he thought it took place, and he said the 1950's. They never said a time period, but the general feel of things in the story hearkens back to a simpler time for kids, like to 1950's.
March 17, 2015
It was fun listening to these mysteries and trying to figure them out. They present good lessons in logic and general knowledge for the young person. I read these books when I was younger and was kind of surprised I liked them as much a second time around. Sometimes the mysteries are easily solved and other times it takes a little more thought.
April 1, 2014
This would be a great started to get students into mystery books. Lots of children have begin to read a lot more mystery books because they like to figure out who the bad guy is.
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March 18, 2016Placeholder for reread of Natural Evil by Thea Harrison
September 8, 2016
I loved these books as a kid! I didn't stop reading the series until I could figure out every case before the ending!
I love that my wee one loves these too!
I love that my wee one loves these too!
September 12, 2016
I thought it was a very interesting book with very clever riddles and mysteries
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews