Danny Dunn is a fifth grade boy who loves science and uses his scientific knowledge to get into and out of trouble in this mid-20th century children’s book series. Around the 1950s, when this book series started, American schools started focusing more on science as part of the Cold War technology race, and children’s book series promoted interest in science and science fiction. The series was aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 12, and the stories contain humor.

Danny lives in a fictional university town called Midston, probably located on the East Coast, although the state is never specified. His widowed mother is the housekeeper for a professor at Midston University, Professor Euclid Bullfinch. Many of Danny’s scientific discoveries and innovations come from accidents that happen or that Danny himself causes in Professor Bullfinch’s laboratory. Professor Bullfinch has a friend, Doctor Grimes, who is sometimes antagonistic, especially toward Danny and his friends. Danny’s best friends are Joe Pearson, who likes poetry and is often confused by science and modern technology, and Irene Miller, who has a strong interest in physics and whose father is an astronomer at the university. Danny’s rival is the school bully, Eddie “Snitcher” Phillips.

The series was written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. Raymond Abrashkin died in 1960, before the series was finished, but Jay Williams continued to give him credit as co-author on following books in the series, since they had originally created the series together.

Books in the Series

Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint (1956)

Danny accidentally creates anti-gravity paint in Professor Bullfinch’s laboratory, and the government uses it on a spaceship. When Professor Bullfinch and Doctor Grimes take Danny and Joe on a tour of the ship, they are accidentally launched into space.

Danny Dunn on a Desert Island (1957)

Danny and Joe are stuck on a desert island with Professor Bullfinch and Doctor Grimes when their plane crashes. The four of them have to survive and figure out how to signal their distress, using only what they have in their pockets.

Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (1958)

Professor Bullfinch builds a new computer and allows Danny to help program it. This is the book where Danny first meets Irene, and when he gets the computer to answer a question Irene asks, they get the idea to input the contents of their textbooks to the computer so it can do their homework. Things go wrong when someone sabotages the computer.

Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine (1959)

Professor Bullfinch builds a machine that creates rain clouds.

Danny Dunn on the Ocean Floor (1960)

Danny accidentally creates a strong, transparent material that can be used to make submersibles. They build a submersible vehicle, a bathysphere, with the material, and Professor Bullfinch and Doctor Grimes take the children on an undersea voyage, where they get trapped in an underwater cave and attacked by a shark!

Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave (1961)

Danny and Joe discover a cave in the local woods. Professor Bullfinch and a geologist friend examine the cave with Professor Bullfinch’s new x-ray machine, making a surprising discovery.

Danny Dunn and the Heat Ray (1962)

A wealthy but annoying industrialist has come to town and is considering investing money in research at the university, although they have to convince him that the laser they’re working on has a practical use.

Danny Dunn, Time Traveler (1963)

Professor Bullfinch invents a time machine, and he and the children are accidentally sent back in time to Colonial America, meeting Benjamin Franklin.

Danny Dunn and the Automatic House (1965)

Professor Bullfinch builds a fully-automated “House of the Future” that does all its own household chores for a science fair, but the children are accidentally trapped inside.

Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space (1967)

Professor Bullfinch develops a heat pump for cooling radio telescopes and arranges to test it on a radio telescope array in England.

Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine (1969)

The government recruits Professor Bullfinch to build a machine that shrinks things for espionage purposes, but the kids borrow it to solve a problem of their own.

Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster (1971)

Professor Bullfinch and Doctor Grimes take the children to Africa to find the source of the Nile River and investigate reports of a swamp monster, and they discover a new species of catfish.

Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy (1974)

Professor Bullfinch creates a probe that can be controlled remotely using a special helmet and gloves. Each of the children gets a chance to try it. Irene and Joe use it to observe creatures in the natural world, but Danny spies on the school bully and catches him cheating to win the school spelling bee. The government becomes interested in the probe, but Professor Bullfinch decides that it’s too dangerous to allow any government to have it.

Danny Dunn Scientific Detective (1976)

Professor Bullfinch and Doctor Grimes work on inventions to help criminal investigations, but Danny borrows their devices to investigate a mystery at his school.

Danny Dunn and the Universal Glue (1977)

Professor Bullfinch creates the world’s strongest glue, and they use it to repair a dam that’s been damaged by a chemical company. Danny also uses some to play a prank on the owner of the chemical company, which is embarrassing but also teaches him a lesson.