Encyclopedia Brown And The Case Of Pablo's Nose (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
Encyclopedia Brown is an excellent series for readers of many ages--even those who have 'moved beyond' this reading level will enjoy matching wits with the kid detective and his many friends and foes, while also enjoying the humorous dialogue and narration (some of which is more humorous because it is a bit outdated). Though occasionally a mystery will be frustratingly difficult to solve because it involves technology that is no longer very commonly used (such as the mystery about CB radios) or things that kids don't encounter in their daily life (I remember being frustrated by a mystery about a pipe and one about a non-electric razor when reading this series as a kid), for the most part, these mysteries are still very on point and fun to read and solve. (Additionally, if your students get exceedingly frustrated, there is now a rebooted series, which I believe is much more modern and includes more recent tech like cell phones.) Though each chapter is a separate mystery, there are excellent themes throughout the series such as using your wits and friends to outsmart bullies (as many of the kids in the neighborhood do, with Encyclopedia's help) as well as (though of course I don't condone violence) the theme of Sally consistently being a better physical fighter than the big mean (male) bully. While this is presented in a bit of a humorous light, she still commands respect from her male and female peers (except of course from the bullies, usually), and was totally my favorite character when I was reading these while growing up.Rereading these as an adult, I notice that there are a variety of different types of puzzles to solve, from common riddles to linguistic knowledge to pattern recognition to unique general knowledge to puzzles that can be solved just by noticing the details in the story, which is a good blend. Though some of the slang is a little weird and I'm not convinced that they were actually every slang terms (the bully says that someone is crazy by asserting that "the girl has drunk too many milk shakes" (despite no milkshakes being present in the story)), the stories are still entertaining. Also, there are detailed illustrations sprinkled throughout the book that help the reader visualize the scene, but the mysteries do not rely on those pictures (so a reader could still solve the mystery if listening to only the text via an audiobook and not having access to the pictures). Overall, I enjoy this series, but the fact that it is a bit outdated in content and linguistics means that I would rather place this in my classroom only if I also had a good mix of more recent mystery books that readers could more reasonably be expected to understand and solve, so I will be looking at the more recent Encyclopedia Brown reboot (as well as other more recent mystery series) in the next few days.
Encyclopedia Brown was one of my favorite series when I was younger. At the time, there was only 3 or 4 books available at the library, and I remember borrowing them multiple times. The books are simple, there are multiple stories and you, as a reader, get to be a detective and try to solve the crime/problem. Solutions are in the back of the book. I am not sure, but it seems the newer books has a lot more shorts compared to the older ones. Regardless, the book kept me scratching my head, and the solutions were quite obvious and gave me d'oh moments. The book series does not need to be read in numerical order since the author always explain quickly who Encyclopedia Brown is and why he's called that as well as quick background on major characters that is seen throughout the series. It was nice to reminisce my favorite series, and it still hold true today. I was only able to borrow some of the newer ones in the series vs the old ones due to library/publishers "stuff". Would love to get ahold of all of them.
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