Thursday, July 26, 2012

Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day!

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Sobol's latest Encyclopedia Brown tale, The Case of the Secret U.F.O.'s, was published in Oct. 2011. He has two instalments forthcoming this October.
cbc.ca
Sorry folks.  More death news, this time on the literary front.  You may not have heard of author Donald Sobol.  If you aren't in a certain age range, his books may not even be familiar to you.  Sobol wrote "Encyclopedia Brown", a popular kids' detective series made popular during the 1960's and 1970's.  He died recently in Miami of natural causes.

I remember reading them in my pre-teen years.  Each one was a baffling mystery to be solved by the reader.  I loved how gender neutral the characters and plots were, even though the key person was a boy, Leroy "Encyclopedia Brown.  That's probably because he had an assistant, a plucky girl named Sally Kimball.

Front CoverSobol also wrote the "Two-Minute Mysteries" based on his long running syndicated column.

We talk about the amazing J.K. Rowling and her ability get kids reading again.  I think that she had a lot of help from predecessors such as Sobol, who despite dozens of rejections, kept persevering until Encyclopedia Brown became a household name, just like Harry Potter.

I actually wouldn't mind reading them all again.

Carol


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