The Great Brain [Paperback]

John Fitzgerald (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: Great Brain

The Great Brain is Tom D. Fitzgerald, aged ten. The story is told by J.D., a sometimes confounded but always admiring younger brother. Such people as Mr. Standish, the mean schoolmaster, regret the day they came up against The Great Brain. But others, like the Jensen kids lost in Skeleton Cave, Basil, the Greek kid, or Andy, who has lost his leg and his friends, know that Tom's great brain never fails to find a way home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A funny, fast-moving, endearing book that [readers] will lap up! (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

The Great Brain is Tom D. Fitzgerald, aged ten. The story is told by J.D., a sometimes confounded but always admiring younger brother. Such people as Mr. Standish, the mean schoolmaster, regret the day they came up against The Great Brain. But others, like the Jensen kids lost in Skeleton Cave, Basil, the Greek kid, or Andy, who has lost his leg and his friends, know that Tom's great brain never fails to find a way home.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (July 15, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440430712
• ISBN-13: 978-0440430711
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #797,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John D. Fitzgerald is the author of seven Great Brain books. He died in Florida, his home of many years, at the age of eighty-one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Brain, March 3, 2000

By 

Susan Reed (Carlsbad, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Brain (Hardcover)

I first read this book and the others in the series as a sixth-grader back in the mid-70s. I, too, read them over and over! I was so enthralled with the stories that I did what I always did with terrific books: looked for any other books by the same author. I was thrilled to discover that in addition to this fictionalized version of J.D.'s childhood, he had also written three non-fiction books detailing his family history and experience in late 19th century Utah: Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse, Papa Married a Mormon, and Mama's Boarding House. I promptly checked them out of the library and devoured them all. They are wonderful stories and an informative background to the Great Brain series. I add my plea to that of another reviewer: SOMEONE, PLEASE REPRINT THESE BOOKS by John D. Fitzgerald! They are a treasure that should not remain relegated to the dusty shelves of used bookstores!

I am currently reading The Great Brain to my six-year old son. At first I was afraid that the writing was a little too sophisticated for him, but with an explanation here and a definition there, he's doing just fine with it. He laughed uproariously at the scene in the opening chapter of the public uncrating and display of the first water closet (indoor flush toilet)in Adenville. These stories are terrific entertainment, as well as history lessons. They give kids a sense of how daily life was a century ago from a kid's perspective.

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed, December 3, 2004

By 

Christopher S. Danielsen (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Brain (Hardcover)

To my knowledge, John Dennis Fitzgerald never won any of the prestigious children's book awards or accolades for this book or any of the others in the series, but it is my opinion as an avid reader from childhood that these books constitute some of the best available children's literature. Fitzgerald was in his sixties when he started this series, but he clearly never lost touch with his childhood self and all of these books are brilliantly written so that J.d. and his big brother seem like kids you know, even though they lived in a small Utah town at the turn of the century. These books have it all: an interesting historical setting; believable characters that develop as the series progresses; plenty of humor, of both the laugh-out-loud and subtler varieties; tenderness and pathos; and even a few good scares.

I picked up a copy of More adventures of the Great Brain, the second in the series, at a book fair in elementary school. (It isn't strictly necessary to read the books in order, though of course it's nice.) I was the most avid reader in my family, though the youngest, and for some reason one summer day when we were bored I started reading the book aloud to my older sister and my uncle, who was only five years older than me (I was nine or ten at the time.) Pretty soon, all three of us were devouring the rest of the series, swapping them among ourselves. I can't be sure, but I think the books may have started my sister's love of reading, though my uncle had always been a reader and had turned me on to the Lord of the Rings. At any rate, these were favorites for years.

Parents, please, please don't be put off by the fact that these books are about a mischievous boy with a penchant for swindling his pals out of their prized possessions. I have not raised children myself, but from my own reading I think children's books that don't have an element of mischief and rebellion in them or quite dull, and as a kid I hated nothing worse than to read a book where I felt like I was being preached to. T.d. gets into plenty of trouble, but his conscience develops as the books progress and he learns that his great brain can be used to help others as well as to cheat them. Unlike some other kids' books where the grownups are simply the bad guys, the adults in these stories are firm but supportive, strict but loving. Despite their tendency to disobey, T.D. and his brothers love and admire their parents and their beloved Uncle Mark, the town's marshall and deputy sheriff who is portrayed as both heroic and down to earth. J.D. says at one point that he really likes his uncle because "he never talked down to Tom and me, but treated us just like grownups," and like his fictional uncle (who may have been based on a real person) Fitzgerald never makes the mistake of condescending to his readers. The tragic story of Abie Glassman in this first volume isn't the last time readers will encounter hard truths in these stories, but Fitzgerald writes about the ups and downs of life in a way that kids will find delightful to digest. The author also lets kids know that grownups screw up, too, and that we all have to learn from each other.

The Great Brain series, as a whole, has the very best of a Wild West adventure, one of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer stories, and the best coming-of-age fiction. There are a few old-fashioned notions here that might not go down well with the PC crowd, like the episode in the second book in which the Fitzgerald family takes on the task of trying to get a tomboy to act more feminine, but none of this should keep you from reading these great stories or giving them to your kids. Despite J.D.'s quip in the first chapter of this book about there being noone more tolerant or understanding of your differences than a kid you can whip in a fight, these books are all about tolerance and treating your fellow man with decency and fairness and love. I am glad these books are still in print and I sincerely hope a whole new generation discovers them, as it would be nothing short of tragic for them to be lost in the dustbin of forgotten kids' lit. Buy them, read them, and pass them on.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for Hard-To-Shop-For Boys (and girls, too), May 8, 2000

By 

Lynette Paulsen (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Brain (Paperback)

I read The Great Brain books in the 70's. Now that I have kids of my own, I've been introducing them to my old favorites. The wonderful thing about the Great Brain series is that it's timeless. It still as fresh as ever, just as full of fun and mischief. The series revolves around the exploits of a young would-be con artist who always seems to get caught. One of the best parts about this series is that it appeals to boys at the age when many of them stop reading for fun. I'm getting this book for one of my third-grade students (I'm a literacy tutor) as a end-of-the-year gift. I know that he will love it.