Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/01/the-creator-of-encyclopedia-br.html
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My favorite book series too as a kid. Followed very closely by the Choose your own adventure D&D books. I still have my full set of the D&D ones and handful of EB books and yes, I do read them on occasion.
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…and he would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids!
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damn maybe he is satoshi nakamoto or the real slim shady.
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Obviously, Encyclopedia Brown grew up and became DB Cooper.
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I loved when he would go home to make pancakes and think about the case and was so impressed. I remember thinking as a young kid about HOW MANY PANCAKES I would make if I was allowed to make them anytime I wanted. Hmmmm - maybe time for pancakes for dinner tonight!
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At first my brain interpreted that as agent Cooper, and my brain decided that checked out quite nicely.
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I loved those books. And “Bugs Meany” was the best name ever for a bully.
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It’s been years, but I can still picture scenes in my head…Bugs Meany suntanning to make his muscles appear bigger…the store owner who saw the robber’s reflection in the bowl on the shelf (or did he?)…
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The case that stays with me is the “discovery” of prehistoric cave paintings depicting cavemen hunting dinosaurs. If you need to, turn to the back of the comments section to find out why Encyclopedia Brown declared it a scam.
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Remember how they had to change the name of “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Toilet” to “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Plumbing” in certain markets, because apparently it just wouldn’t do to have “toilet” in the name of the book?
I also recall one especially contrived case that worked in a change-making problem on the basis of, “Oh no! I have a wheelbarrow of sock-filled pennies, and this notorious bully is going to ask me to make change for him and then short me!”
Then there was the other case of, “Oh no! Some con artist is luring people into playing a game to see who can get an egg to spin the longest!”
I think my favorite might have been “Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake!”, which, despite being mainly an excuse to print recipes, was also unique in that it narrated the shock and distress of culprits after being found out.
And yes, Secret Agents Four was darn cool.
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I think I read every Encyclopedia Brown book back in the day.
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He’s got a mind to solve your crime,
Encyclopedia Brown
Lost your dog, he’ll track it down,
Encyclopedia Brown
He and Sally, on the case
Punch Bugs Meaney in the face,
Best damned sleuth in time and space
Encylopedia Brown.
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know the title, but never read them.
But there was a window of a few years in late elemectary school , late sixties, where we had access to the Scholastic Book Club, similar type books. I never got all I wanted, I suspect lack of money (especially when I was buying How & Whu Wonderbooks vat the neighnorhood bookstore). But Runaway Robot, Stranger from the Depths, Secret Sea, and others were great.
One was something like “The case of the Fugitive Firebug”. Hhe solved crimes, had a treehouse, got packages in the mail.
I seee that the future is really the past, to go back to those days, except you can decide your own life. Get that treehouse, get that telescope, read Tom Swift jr, and comic books. They were once key
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I remember that one a little differently. It was a group of kids who picked eggs for their opponents and marked them so everyone could tell whether someone changed eggs. One guy kept winning, and they were sure he was cheating but couldn’t figure out how because he was clearly using the same egg he was given.
“But the store owner said he had to sweep up the mess.”
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I remember Encyclopedia Brown being utterly dependent on criminals being flustered into confessing their crime when Brown pointed out a trivial flaw in something they said rather than simply, in Sarah Sanders fashion, them just claiming that what they said was a slip of the tongue. (I suppose Encyclopedia Brown shared this, to a degree, with Perry Mason.)
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I loved EB as a kid, and I look back and think what fantastic little logic puzzles. These embodied the idea of educational entertainment.
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