Who doesn't love Encyclopedia Brown? Come on, you know we all read these books when we were kids. And some of us read them now as grownups. Or pseudo-grownups, whatever we may be. Anyway, fabulous: the Doogie Howser of crime takes care of all Idaville's problems that the big scary police chief can't handle. True! The chief of police, Leroy AKA Encyclopedia's father, comes home with an oh-so-confusing case that he's just clueless on. He can't figure it out so he tells his pint-sized genius all about it over dinner. By dessert Encyclopedia has solved the case, proved to his parents that he's the best thing since sliced bread, and oh yeah, fixed that little world peace problem. Brilliant!
The best part of this book is that each of the cases is a little mini-story that ends with Encyclopedia saying, "but of course I've figured it out," then there's an ominous second voice that intones, "How did Encyclopedia KNOW????" and then you're instructed to turn to the end to see if you were right. You're supposed to see if you're a kid genius just like Encyclopedia. So, did you notice things like:
1. The one who spells the best (the word "bookkeeper") is obviously the devious criminal
2. Men's shirts only have pockets on one side. The left side.
3. Whoever likes Ted Williams the best stole the watermelon
4. You never file your fingernails after taking a bath
5. An eight-year-old would obviously not know how to punctuate a love note.
What? You mean you picked up on all those things? Congratulations. You ARE a child genius!
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