Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the sleeping dog Book

I continue to enjoy the reading my dad does of these sets of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, having read many of the books. We quickly read this group of stories, filled with some unique mysteries we can process in a few minutes, connecting with one another as we guess the all but obvious solutions. The kid detective still works his magic in Idaville, USA, keeping the town crime-free and collecting his coins from those who can pay. Encyclopedia helps with the state shower singing championship (!!), prove Bugs Meany is framing him, and witnesses a food saying beak-off! These wonderful five-minute mysteries seek to entertain and exercise the brain of both child and adult, but require some keen sleuthing. We have used them as a before bedtime activity and we are getting much better at piecing the clues together in a timely manner. Young sleuths in the making may want to sharpen their skills with the massive collection of stories.

I love that the stories keep me thinking. These stories read to my dad when he was young as well, helping us want to pass along the tradition. I enjoy listening to the stories and making an effort to uncover the clues that will help solve the cases. These are perfect stories for parent-child reading, but would be great for a good reader when they have time or are on a road trip. A note to parents: the stories are dated (even as they author writes in the 1990s) and some of the word choices might not be as correct as you would like your young reader to use on a daily basis.