[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

I liked Encyclopedia Brown. But even as a kid, I thought some of the solutions weren’t that great. I remember thinking, “Are you sure that’s enough to get someone arrested?”

Yeah, sometimes the solutions are questionable.

I've also run in to issues where the Encyclopedia Brown stories not being updated has kept my kid from being able to figure out the solutions, even if they were otherwise fair.

Sure, it was a great way to teach kids to look for clues in the text. Our teachers used to read the chapters to the class and get us to guess. They were better than the other “mini-mysteries” out there. But sometimes, the solutions were too forced. And the stories could be even more formulaic than Nancy Drew. (Why the bully didn’t end up either in jail or running for mayor I’ll never know…)

The books in general follow a pattern. Each book has ten mysteries. Bugs Meany, the bully, shows up at least once.

I do wish Sally got to headline at least a story in each book. She was sold as the equal to Encyclopedia in the brains department and more than a match for Bugs in brawn. She would be great for my kid to read about. But instead, Sally plays Watson to Encyclopedia's Holmes.

But I really appreciate that those books get my kid to think beyond just following the text.

This was always an issue for those “mini-mysteries.” I seem to remember there was one where the sleuth figured out someone claiming to be an English professor was a fake because the sleuth told him to “scan” a document for clues, and he quickly read it (skimmed it); instead of quickly looking over the paper (scanning it). Come on!

Donald J. Sobol (the author of Encyclopedia Brown) also wrote stories for young adults called Two Minute Mysteries. Aside from the occasional murder, they were the same as the Encyclopedia Brown stories (in both good and bad ways).