Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog (No. 21)

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This is number 21 in the popular series by Donald Sobel. Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, a winning fifth-grader, uses his powers of observation and logic to solve petty crimes and assorted other mysteries in his neighborhood. Aided in some stories by tough, bright Sally Kimball (look out, she hits!), Encyclopedia solves 10 cases here. The stories are formatted similarly: There's a problem (e.g., something is stolen, someone makes a possibly false statement), and Sobel mixes in a few good clues with a lot of dialogue and extraneous information. Brown announces that he has solved the case, and the reader is asked to come up with Brown's solution. Answers are given in the back.

Unlike some books in the series, all but two or three of the stories were solvable without special knowledge or assumptions. Our third-grader, who's quite the intellect himself, said that a few of these mini-mysteries were very hard; some of these stories are more appropriate for kids in upper elementary school grades. Each story is about 5-6 pages long; the solutions are about 1 page. The dialogue doesn't always sound very contemporary, at least not for those living in urban California. Close attention to detail will help the young Holmes in your house.

The bad part about it was it was exactly like the others and it can get boring.Out of all it was good.