More Adventures Of The Great Brain (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
I would not recommend this book to children of any age. The writing is wordy and flat, making it difficult to imagine the characters and events and really get into the story. In addition, this book seems to condone lying, cheating, and swindling as long as you do not get caught; these are not positive attributes to be teaching children. Tom is also constantly taking advantage of John, who is too naïve to understand what is happening, which is also something we should not be teaching children to do to one another. Because of the time period this book was written in, it also has some content problems as well. It suggests that it is not appropriate for girls to like boy things and that they must wear dresses and play with dolls in order to be acceptable to society. It also makes numerous pointed statements about how Mormons are rude, unaccepting, and too numerous for the good of the general population. It might be helpful to read this book to children if the goal is to teach them about what people used to think about women and other faiths like Mormonism, but I would not feel comfortable having a child read these things alone without being able to teach them what is wrong with this way of thinking in today’s world.
My respect for John D. Fitzgerald's The Great Brain series, and More Adventures of the Great Brain in particular, is such that I may have given it the 1970 John Newbery Medal, even over a story as solemnly lovely as William H. Armstrong's Sounder. I love this book, and have thought fondly of it many, many times in the years since being introduced to it by my fifth-grade schoolteacher, musing over certain tales and remembering how much fun they were to read about. I definitely need to get back to this series again someday, as I'm not finished; in fact, I'm not even halfway through, as of the time of this writing. More Adventures of the Great Brain is a special favorite of mine, and I can't recommend it to my friends highly enough.
What do You think about More Adventures Of The Great Brain (2004)?
3.5 stars Personally, I didn't find this book as enjoyable as the first. It's a little milder and a little more predictable. But the familiar, lovable characters are still there, and Tom's "great brain" continues to get him into sticky situations. I really liked the subplots of Britches Dotty and Old Butch's Funeral; they were pretty creative, and added warmth to the story. But aside from those stories, the book felt a bit dry to me. But it's still a decent book, and of course, there are still those great Mercer Mayer illustrations!
—Victoria
The great brain named Tom always swindles kids out of everything that they have. All the kids parents are always complaining about how their kids lost all their toys to him. Tom is always making money. Once he tried to scare a kid named Parley Benson. He claimed that he was very brave so Tom said that if Parley showed up at the mouth of skeleton cave then Parley was brave. Skeleton cave was like a labyrinth and a lot of kids died because they were lost. Tom decided to make tracks in the dirt to scare Parley away. But some grownups found the fake tracks and thought that they where from a prehistoric animal. Tom had to tell them it was him because "the grownups where being stupid" I love this series. Read it!
—Caleb
This was a bit less edgy than the first book in the series - in that book, the narrator tried his best to help his friend commit suicide after his friend lost the bottom half of his leg, because his friend felt worthless.Regardless, "The Great Brain" remains a rather interesting character as is more complex than most in children's literature in that he's both 'halos and horns,' and there are times when he's quite irritating in his con-artist glory. Nonethelest, a fun quick read - no longer as PC as it was when written, but that's part of what made it interesting - to me, at least.
—Shane
