Last month, I mentioned that I was participating in the Children’s Classics Mystery Challenge, hosted by 5 Minutes For Books — spending some time between January and June of this year reading classic mystery books for kids.

During the past month, I focused on some Encyclopedia Brown books. I didn’t have a particular plan of attack; I just headed to the library and grabbed a bunch of Encyclopedia brown books from the shelf. So far, I’ve read:

Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Mysterious Handprints
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt

Though I read plenty of Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid, I hadn’t remembered how formulaic the books were. It seems that every book contains:

• An opening chapter that identifies the setting (the town of Idaville) and mentions how normal it is…except for the incredible boy detective (who also happens to be the only son of the local police chief), who spends his spare time keeping criminals off the streets.
• A mystery in which Chief Brown shares the clues of a case at the dinner table and Encyclopedia immediately solves it (usually after asking just one question)
• At least one case involving Bugs Meany, local bully and head of The Tigers, a tough (if not very clever) town gang.
• One case that mentions how Encyclopedia’s partner, Sally Kimball, is the prettiest girl in fifth grade, but also very athletic and tough. She’s knocked Bugs Meany flat more than once.

Each Encyclopedia Brown book contains a number of short mysteries (usually around ten), each of which is solved by fifth-grader Encyclopedia Brown. Encyclopedia (whose real name is Leroy) always identifies the culprit by careful observation, and often by utilizing his Jeopardy-champion-like command of trivia and information. For example, in one story, he figured out “whodunit” because he knew that no one can fold a piece of paper in half by hand more than seven times.

At the end of each mystery, the reader is instructed to Turn to page ___ for the solution. As a kid, I remember reading and re-reading the mysteries, looking for clues, trying to figure out the answer before turning to the back of the book to read the solution. This time around, I didn’t do that. I gave myself one chance to figure out each mystery.

And even though I’m a good 25 years older, there were still mysteries I couldn’t figure out on my own. Oh, I figured out lots more than when I was a kid, but author Donald Sobol still stumped me in every book.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed re-visiting the Encyclopedia Brown books and I might read a few more before the end of the challenge. My son, C. (11), has been reading some of the stories as well, since I’ve had the library books scattered throughout the house, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he asks me to bring more home from the library.

Finally, while Googling Encyclopedia Brown recently, I came across this satire about E.B. at The Onion. If you’ve recently read some Encyclopedia Brown books, or if you loved them as a kid and remember them well, it might give you a smile.

Don’t forget to visit 5 Minutes for Books to see how other challenge participants are doing.