I loved the “Mad Scientists Club” books - one of my favorite kids’ book series!!! Funny, subversive, and inventive - just what any little boy would like. Unfortunately, there weren’t nearly enough of them. I could have read those forever.
May I put in a plug for Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins/Ribsy/Beezus/Ramona series, too? Good stuff.
Yeah, I missed that. D’oh! :smack:
Mad Scientists Club was awesome! I loved it when they made the UFO and fooled the whole town. Or when they made their own sea monster. Or, or, or… The Great Brain was so far above Encylopedia Brown that they don’t really deserve to be in the same setence together. Remember when Tom taught the kid how to use his prosthetic leg and so Tom won his erector set?
Different kind of issue. Tom would never place a bet on an issue unless he knew the ins and outs of it thoroughly. That’s the sort of thing he wouldn’t leave to chance.
The raft mistake wasn’t of that nature. Tom risked one more raft ride down the river even though it had been raining in the mountains, and the river was muddy, which were indicators of a flood. And when the flood hit, he risked his own life to save the other kids. Yes, both involve “chance,” but in a fundamentally different way.
*During Tom’s “trial,” interestingly enough, the “judge” ruled that although raining in the mountains and muddy water were separately not enough proof that there would be a flood, their presence together meant that Tom should have known there would be a flood. *
Actually, that solution did make sense, because the emphasis wasn’t on the shortness of the skirt, it was on the tightness. Bugs Meany’s cousin (?) said she had just returned from her cello lesson, but her skirt was so tight that she was having trouble walking–she certainly couldn’t have fit a cello between her legs, therefore.
…I can’t believe I remembered the story so clearly.
I used to read EB all the time in school. Eventually I started picking up on “little clues” that were so blatantly obvious that a three-year-old could have figured out which part of the text you were supposed to pay attention to. Like one story where Bugs entered a contest to drink a vile-tasting liquid and won because he’d been sucking on ice all day to numb his taste buds… They must have mentioned the ice-sucking about five times during the story.
I still liked them, though, because every now and then I’d find a story where the solution didn’t actually suck, and I felt really smart for figuring out the solution before looking it up in the back of the book.
That one with the ice sucking wasn’t Bugs Meaney, it was some other kid. He’d also been using ice in a towel to cool off the back of his neck. I think the line was something like, “Wow, that kid sure knows how to keep his cool” (wasn’t EB always full of stupidly witty phrases?). It also involved the kid with the super strong teeth/jaws. The contest was to drink some terrible tasting mixture of mustard and water and other stuff, and whomever could react the least would win.
As a kid, I would have.
Ah, so…ignoring danger signs when lives—including his own—where on the line was something he was game for, but not when risking cash or his reputation? That’s dedication to business for ya…did he end up working for Ford? 
BTW, for fans of the Mad Scientists Club, may I recommend…The Big Kerplop?
Ah, McGurk! I’d almost forgotten about him. God, he was a reckless nut. Great stories. 
I totally remember these series and loved them way more than the EB series! On a sad note, I checked the Los Angeles Public Library system to see if they had any to refresh my memory, but they don’t carry a single book from the series!
Maybe Sobol was hoping that, for the movie version, they would be able to get Kirk Douglas to play the role.
Ha! I loved that one!
I was so tickled when I went to Utah when I was in high school and discovered that there are still ZCMI stores, just like in the Great Brain.
I know what I’m getting next trip to the library.
Let me be the first to link to the ridiculous adventures of Lance Lawson.
Did anyone else read Sobol’s Incognito Mosquito series? IIRC, he took his Encyclopedia Brown stories, peopled them with insects, added some slapstick, and published them. I got so mad when I stumbled across one of them in the school library and checked it out 'cause it looked funny; we were only allowed to check out two books a week and I’d already read those stories in an Encyclopedia Brown book!
I remember the three investigators. They had a kick-ass hideout. I was a big Trixie Belden fan, too. They’ve re-released most of the Trixie Belden books; if I can ever get my head above water I’m gonna start stockpiling them for when the mini-Marli gets older.
That was so wrong, yet so beautiful.
No EB stories to add, but does anyone else remeber Hawkeye Collins? He had a photographic memory, and he would draw pictures of the “crime scene”, and use those to solve the mystery, so every story would end with a “Wat’s wrong with this picture?” type scenario. I loved those things! They were every bit as lame as EB books, but so so fun!
And I totally wanted to start my own detective agency when I was a kid.
That was another “Gee, things sure were different back then!” moment for me. After Tom’s dad told him that the teacher being strict wasn’t a reason for him to be fired, he went on to say, “Of course, a teacher who drank or gambled or used profanity would be unsuitable.” That seemed awfully extreme to me. Not “drank to excess and showed up hung over every morning.” Not “gambled away his paycheck and got visits from goons”. Not “used profanity in front of the children”. Just the mere act of drinking, gambling or cursing would be enough.
But of course, as Nonsuch pointed out, in a small town like that, there was no such thing as privacy. And of course, Tom was shrewd enough to know what people would look for, and where, so in addition to the liquor bottle in the coat pocket, he also put empty bottles in the trash bin of the house where the teacher boarded, and put Sen-Sen (to cut the liquor-breath) in the desk, and (I think) a bottle in the desk as well.
Personally, I thought the teacher was strict, but not the SOB Tom thought he was. Tom went through the same thing with the headmaster at his boarding school, and had the same change of heart when he realized that people have many facets to them, and they’re not evil just because they enforce rules! He had a problem with authority, that’s all.
And that’s another scene I recall. Bear with me on this: Shortly after he arrived at the Academy, Tom wrote to the Vatican (!), complaining against Fr. Rodriguez, the headmaster. Well, he didn’t get an answer until January, but by that time he’d reconsidered, plus the letter only told him to take the matter up with the local bishop. So when Rodriguez gave him the letter, but assured him he wouldn’t read private correspondence from the Vatican, Tom glibly said, “Oh, I asked permission to start a basketball team here at the Academy, and they said yes!”
So they did start the team. But before their first game, the ax fell: the local bishop, a very scary guy who made Rodriguez look like Ned Flanders, demanded to see the letter. Upshot was, Tom was to be expelled for the compound lie. He didn’t protest, but before he left the office, pleaded for Rodriguez’s forgiveness. “I just wanted the Academy to be someplace the boys cared about, not just someplace their parents make them go.” Rodriguez was so touched, he didn’t expel Tom after all. :::snif::: (They also won the game against the other school. And I think Tom had some point-shaving scheme there, too…)
I read everything Beverly Cleary growing up. Ralph S Mouse was okay, but the meat was on Klickacat Street.
I still read Strider at least once a year.
Remember, Mr. Standish paddled Tom for something he didn’t do. Tom knew who did it (whatever it was, I don’t recall now), but refused to tattle, so he got whipped. It was the injustice of being punished for another person’s misdeed that aroused Tom’s wrath.
Interesting side-note: John D’s “adult” memoir Papa Married a Mormon tells a similar story about Tom. A local woman was persecuting Mamma for abandoning her Mormon faith to marry Tom Sr., a Catholic. So Tom concocts an elaborate ruse in which they convince the old woman her house is being repeatedly attacked by Indians(!). Eventually, when the poor creature is about to be hauled off to the funny farm, Tom confesses. And wouldn’t you know it, the same old lady goes on to save Tom’s life when she nurses him through a bout of diphtheria. Anyway …
Tom actually tells him, “I think His Holiness would like it if we started a basketball team.” Technically, not a lie.
Actually they didn’t win—but they did cover the spread, allowing Tom and his teammates to clean up on the bets they made.
A few months ago I discovered the re-release and bought every title that had been released at that point - I think up to #12 or 13. I read them all and then got so nostalgic that I started looking for used copies of all the other books on Amazon. At this point I’ve re-read most of the series and some of them are just as good as I remembered, but towards the end of the series they feel completely phoned-in.
The sad part is that I don’t even have kids to claim own the books. I’m an alleged grownup but I was giddy to read “The Mystery of the Emeralds” again.
And to stick to the topic, an annoying point throughout the entire series is that Trixie ALWAYS solved the mystery, and yet even by the 30th or so mystery her parents and friends still mocked her when she found someone or something suspicious. Come on, the girl obviously knows from mysteries, let her do her thing and quit with the “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation” garbage.
And MAN! There is some serious sexism in those books, considering that the main character is a girl. I know they’re just a product of the times in which they were written, but it still bothers me.