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Great Brain (Paperback)

by John D. Fitzgerald (Author) "MOST EVERYONE IN UTAH remembers 1896 as the year the territory became a state..." (more)
Key Phrases: magic water closet, plumb useless, freezer bucket, Uncle Mark, Aunt Bertha, Main Street (more...)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

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

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

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Product Details

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback
Publisher: Yearling Books (April 1993)
ISBN-10: 9993153079
ISBN-13: 978-9993153078

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)

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This is item 1 in The Great Brain Series.

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
MOST EVERYONE IN UTAH remembers 1896 as the year the territory became a state. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
magic water closet, plumb useless, freezer bucket, great brain, pint flask, peg leg, tumble fight

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Uncle Mark, Aunt Bertha, Main Street, Sammy Leeds, Miss Thatcher, Calvin Whitlock, Danny Forester, Howard Kay, Jimmie Peterson, Skeleton Cave, The Great Brain, Bishop Aden, Dave Teller, Salt Lake City, Andy Anderson, Community Church, Don Huddle, Tom Dennis, Adenville Weekly Advocate, Cedar Ridge, Palace Cafe, Seth Smith, That's John, Cedar City, New York World

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 3 books:

The Great Brain Is Back by John D. Fitzgerald in Front Matter, and Back Matter
The Great Brain Does it Again (Great Brain #7) by John Fitzgerald in Front Matter
Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald in Back Matter

47 books cite this book:

The Great Brain Reforms by John D. Fitzgerald on 6 pages
The Great Brain Is Back by John D. Fitzgerald on 5 pages
What Else Should I Read? Guiding Kids to Good Books, Vol. 2 by Matt Berman on 5 pages
The Return of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald on 4 pages
35 Best Books for Teaching U.S. Regions by Toni Buzzeo on page 77, page 83, and page 85

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

More Adventures of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

Discusses:

The Return of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

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The Great Brain Is Back by John D. Fitzgerald

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The Great Brain Reforms by John D. Fitzgerald

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	89% buy the item featured on this page: Great Brain 4.9 out of 5 stars (80)
	4% buy Encyclopedia Brown Box Set 4.8 out of 5 stars (8) $13.57
	3% buy Me and My Little Brain (Great Brain) 4.8 out of 5 stars (13) $5.99
	2% buy The Mad Scientists' Club (Mad Scientist Club) 5.0 out of 5 stars (72) $12.89

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Customer Reviews

80 Reviews

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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4.9 out of 5 stars (80 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Susan Reed "eliseareed" (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.

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33 of 34 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.

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14 of 15 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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for boys
This series is simply fabulous. All of them are wonderful studies in characterization. I used books from this series several times for just that purpose when I taught sixth... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Lionors

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Must Read For All Kids
The Great Brain is one of the best all time books for boys ever written. In my humble opinion of course. The prose is engaging capturing the attention. Read more

Published 12 months ago by M. Peake

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read but BEWARE.
This book is a wonderful protrait of 19th century rural America, but people should be aware that it was written at a time when there was much more freedom of speech than we have... Read more

Published 13 months ago by returnServiceRequested

4.0 out of 5 stars book review
In the book The Great Brain written by John D. Fitzgerld was awesome! The book takes place in Adenville, Utah. There are some main characters this book, Tom (T. Read more

Published 13 months ago

5.0 out of 5 stars Not too shabby...
The is a wonderfully, great, terrific book! They need to re-release the Great Brain movie from 1978 starring little Jimmy Osmond! Read more

Published 16 months ago by G. Petersen

5.0 out of 5 stars Reliving my childhood through my daughter.
I poured through these books continuously in my youth. I would beg for a trip to the library so I could find just one more I hadn't read. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Chad E. Book

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading Level
I hope AMAZON reads this, but the ages of 4 to 8 years is not correct. I think they mean 4th-8th grade, not years. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Shannon Hill

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious book for kids of all ages!!!!!!!!!!
This is a wonderful book for all ages. Its about a 10 year old boy that is always thinking of money making schemes!!!

Published on July 3, 2007 by Hoppy Doppelrocket

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty and wonderful!
This book reminded me of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is so well
written. It is full of wit and heartwarming understanding of the workings
of young boys. Read more

Published on November 10, 2006 by J. Cheek

5.0 out of 5 stars Hillarity for "kids" of all ages
The antics of the Great Brain as told by his brother are some of the funniest, twisted, and gut-splitting moments in popular literature. Read more

Published on November 9, 2006 by The Brown Bear

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