Posted on by TracyC

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter, 1933.

Professor Branestawm is a classic absent-minded professor. He’s is a balding man who wears several pairs of glasses, one of which is for finding the other pairs of glasses when he inevitably loses them. He’s a very clever man, but everyone knows that his inventions are likely to cause chaos. He’s not an easy person to talk to, so he doesn’t have many friends. His best friend is Colonel Dedshott, who is a very brave man.

Every chapter in this book is about another of the Professor’s inventions and the adventures that the Professor, the Colonel, and the Professor’s housekeeper, Mrs. Flittersnoop, have with them and with various situations that the Professor creates with his absent-mindedness. The stories are accompanied by pen-and-ink drawings. I love the way almost every picture of the professor shows him shedding one or more of his many pairs of glasses and that the Colonel’s weapon of choice is a slingshot!

Chapter 1: The Professor Invents a Machine

One day, Professor Branestawm invites the Colonel to his house to see his latest invention, which he says will revolutionize travel. When the Colonel arrives, Professor Branestawm explains his idea. First, he points out that, if you’re traveling somewhere, you’ll arrive in half the amount of time you ordinarily would if you travel there twice as fast. The Colonel says that makes sense. Then, Professor Branestawm says that, the faster and faster you travel, the sooner you arrive at your destination. That also makes sense. Further, Professor Branestawm says, you eventually start traveling so fast that you arrive before you even start, and if you go fast enough, you can arrive years before you start. The Colonel doesn’t really understand this, but he takes the Professor’s word for it. The Professor has built a machine that will allow them to travel that fast, and the Colonel is eager to try it. He suggests that they try going back in time to a party he attended three years earlier. The Professor insists that they take some powerful bombs with them, just in case of emergencies (don’t try to make sense of it, there isn’t any), and the Colonel has his trusty catapult (slingshot) and bullets with him.

It turns out that, rather than going to the party three years earlier, they arrive at the scene of a battle that took place in another country two year earlier. Although they already know how the battle turned out, the Professor and Colonel can’t resist joining in with their bombs and catapult, and they end up wiping out an entire army and changing the result of the battle in favor of the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries are so grateful to them for their help that they take them to the palace of their former king, put the two men on the enormous throne there, and make them the new presidents of the country. Professor Branestawm realizes that they’ve made a terrible mistake and changed history because the king’s army was the one that was originally supposed to win the battle. The Colonel, however, doesn’t care because he thinks it sounds like fun to be a president and can’t wait to do some ruling.

Of course, the ruling of the two presidents doesn’t go well. Neither one of them really knows anything about running a country. Since they blew up all the country’s troops, there are no troops left for the Colonel to review, and he ends up playing with toy soldiers. Meanwhile, the Professor really just wants to get back to his inventing. Eventually, the revolutionaries get tired of this and tell them that they’ve decided that they don’t want any presidents, so they’re giving them a week’s notice before they’re out of a job. The Professor and the Colonel try not to take any notice (ha, ha) of the revolutionaries’ attempts to dethrone them. This just leads to the revolutionaries trying to imprison them in the dungeon, so the Professor and the Colonel are forced to escape in the Professor’s machine, which takes them back to the exact time and location where they started. They arrive just as the Professor’s housekeeper brings them some tea, so they have their tea, go about their usual business, and leave it to the historians to deal with the complications of the two of them changing history.

Chapter 2: The Wild Waste-Paper

When Professor Branestawm’s housekeeper puts a bottle of cough syrup with no stopper into the waste-paper basket, it accidentally creates a waste-paper monster! It turns out that it wasn’t really cough syrup in the bottle. It was a special life-giving formula that the professor invented. He only keeps it in a cough syrup bottle because cough syrup is the only thing that neutralizes the life-giving formula and stops it from bringing everything it touches to life, including the bottle holding it. Now that they’ve accidentally created a waste-paper monster, what can they do to stop it, especially since it seems to have the ability to use tools and is currently trying to saw down the tree where the Professor and his housekeeper are trying hide?

Chapter 3: The PRofessor Borrows a Book

Professor Branestawm accidentally loses a library book about lobsters, so he goes to another library to get the same book. By the time that he needs to return the library book, he has found the first one and lost the second one. For a while, he manages to avoid library fines by continually returning and checking out the same book from both libraries because the libraries don’t notice which library the book is from. Of course, he eventually loses the first book, too. He tries to fix the situation by getting the same book from a third library and then one from a fourth library, when he loses the third book. Where will it all end? How many libraries will have to share this one book, and where on earth are all these books about lobsters going?

Chapter 4: Burglars!

Professor Branestawm and his housekeeper go to the movies to see a documentary about brussels sprouts. (The housekeeper doesn’t care about brussels sprouts, but there’s a Mickey Mouse cartoon included with the feature, and she wants to see that.) When they get back, they discover that the house has been robbed! Professor Branestawm decides that he’s going to invent a burglar catcher, but the only burglar he catches is himself.

Chapter 5: The Screaming Clocks

Professor Branestawm’s clock stops, so he takes it to a clock repair shop. It turns out that the clock has only wound down because the Professor has forgotten to wind it. The Professor decides that he’s going to invent a clock that will go forever and never need winding. (This story is set before clocks that don’t need winding became common.) The Professor does invent a clock that will never stop and never need winding, but he makes a critical mistake: the chimes never reset after they strike twelve. They just continue counting up and up, endlessly, with no way to stop them! Just how many times will they endlessly strike before something terrible happens?

Chapter 6: The Fair at Pagwell Green

The Professor visits a local fair and invites the Colonel to join him. The Colonel ends up winning most of the prizes for the various games, and the Professor accidentally gets left behind in the waxworks exhibit, being mistaken for a wax statue of himself. When the Professor decides that it’s finally time to get up and go home, the people who work in the waxworks think that a wax statue has come to life!

Chapter 7: The Professor Sends an Invitation

Professor Branestawm writes a letter to the Colonel, inviting him to tea, but because he is distracted, thinking about potatoes, he accidentally writes a muddled letter and then mails the paper he used to blot the letter instead of the letter itself. The message that arrives at the Colonel’s house is a backward, muddled mess, and he has no idea who sent it to him. Since it looks like it’s written in some strange language he doesn’t know, the Colonel decides to take it to the Professor to see if he can decipher it. The Professor fails to recognize the letter as what he sent and has forgotten that he sent it. Will the two of them figure out what the letter is about, or will they eventually just give up and have some tea?

Chapter 8: The Professor Studies Spring Cleaning

Professor Branestawm’s housekeeper’s spring cleaning creates some chaos in the professor’s house, and the Colonel suggests that Professor Branetawm invent a spring cleaning machine. Predictably, the spring cleaning machine creates an even bigger mess and far more chaos.

Chapter 9: The T00-Many Professors

Professor Branestawm invents a very smelly liquid that brings things from pictures to life. The things from the pictures go back to being pictures when the liquid dries. Of course, there are some things that cause big problems when they’re brought to life. Possibly the most chaotic pictures that come to life are pictures of the Professor and the Colonel and the professor’s housekeeper. Who is who and which is which?

Chapter 10: The Professor Does a Broadcast

Professor Branestawm is invited to give a talk on the radio, and the Colonel helps him to rehearse. However, because he gets mixed up, he almost misses his own talk, and when he finally gives it, he speaks too fast and discovers that the time slot for his talk is much longer than he thought it was. Listeners are confused, but everything is more or less all right when the Children’s Hour comes on.

Chapter 11: Colonel Branestawm and Professor Dedshott

The Professor and the Colonel are going to a costume ball. Since the Professor doesn’t know what to do for a costume, the Colonel suggests that the two of them dress as each other. This causes some confusion, and neither of them likes each other’s clothes. The Professor’s social skills aren’t even great at the best of times, and the truth is that he’d rather be inventing things at home in his “inventory” (pronounced “invEnt – ory” as in a laboratory where you invent things, ha, ha). Then, the Countess at the ball raises the alarm that her pearls are missing! Everyone is confused when they try to get “the Colonel” to find the thief, and he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. It takes a while for things to get sorted out, but at least the Professor and the Colonel develop a new appreciation for being themselves instead of being each other.

Chapter 12: The Professor Moves House

Professor Branestawm’s house has gotten so full of his inventions that it’s become difficult to live there, so he’s decided to move to a new house. Moving to the new house is an escapade, and when Professor Branestawm and his housekeeper get there, they discover that the water and gas haven’t been connected up yet. Professor Branestawm’s attempts to remedy the situation render the new house unlivable, so he is forced to move back to his older house.

Chapter 13: Pancake Day at Great Pagwell

Professor Branestawm invites his friends and various members of the community to his house for a party, where there will be tea and pancakes. Everyone is happy to go because of the promise of pancakes, but when they’re all there, Professor Branestawm reveals that the party is to unveil is newest invention: a pancake-making machine! As the library man predicts, the pancake-making machine goes wrong (just like the Professor’s other inventions), but it’s all right because the town council comes up with a new purpose for it.

Chapter 14: Professor Branestawm’s Holiday

Professor Branestawm takes a trip to the seaside. He asks the Colonel to join him and bring his book about jellyfish, but unfortunately, he neglects to tell the Colonel where he’s staying (partly because he forgot where he was supposed to stay and is actually staying somewhere else). When the Colonel tries to find the Professor, he accidentally mistakes an entertainer dressed as a professor for Professor Branestawm. When the entertainer isn’t acting like himself (so the Colonel thinks), the Colonel becomes worried and decides medical intervention is necessary.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies). It’s the first book in a series about Professor Branestawm, and it was also adapted for television multiple times.

My Reaction

Kids won’t learn anything about real science from Professor Branestawm, but the stories in the book are funny and not meant to be taken seriously at all. Most of the stories are about some pretty silly things that don’t really mean much in the end, but when you think about it, the Professor’s antics do lead to some pretty serious consequences, from wiping out an entire army just for the fun of it (pretty horrific in real life) and changing the course of history to accidentally blowing up someone’s house with his perpetually-chiming clock. No matter what the Professor does, though, there never seem to be any lasting consequences.

Even when people around him brace themselves for when the Professor’s latest project inevitably goes wrong, everybody still thinks that the Professor is pretty clever. The Colonel always thinks the Professor is clever, and even when he knows that the Professor is bound to do something that’s going to cause chaos, he enjoys the excitement. The housekeeper sometimes goes to stay with her sister, Aggie, when the chaos and excitement get too much for her.

The stories are just meant to be enjoyed for their zaniness, and there’s no point in analyzing them much. You don’t have to worry about whether anything the Professor does makes sense or exactly how he got any of his inventions to work. You can just enjoy seeing how everything develops and watch the craziness unfold! It sort of reminds me of Phineas and Ferb’s summer projects, which cause some chaos but are ultimately funny and always disappear at the end of the day. Enjoying these stories is what they used to say in the theme song for the tv show Mystery Science Theater 3000:

“If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts,
Just repeat to yourself “It’s just a show,
I should really just relax …”

I can promise you that, no matter what happens in any of the stories, the Professor and his friends will ultimately be fine and will probably have a cup of tea (or “a cup of something”) afterward. This book was originally published in Britain the early 1930s, and it was read by children during the Great Depression. I can imagine that it might have given children then a good laugh and some escapism during troubled times.

Strangely, at least one of the Professor’s inventions, the clock that never needs winding, is a real invention that we have every day because time has moved on (ha, ha) since this book was originally written and published. In fact, it’s very unusual to find clocks that need to be wound these days. Of course, the part about the clock perpetually chiming more and more and blowing up when it gets to be too much is just part of the craziness of Professor Branestawm.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Mixed Magics

Mixed Magics by Diana Wynne Jones, 2000.

This book is part of the Chrestomanci series. Although most of the books in the series are longer novels, this book is a collection of four shorter stories, all set in the universe of Chrestomanci, where there are multiple dimensions with other worlds and series of worlds. The Chrestomanci is a powerful enchanter with nine lives (or, at least, he starts out with that many – he leads a dangerous life, or lives). The Chrestomanci’s job is sort of like the ultimate law enforcement for magic. He prevents the misuse of magic and stops evil magicians, especially ones who disrupt the balance between the worlds. The stories in this book focus on different characters, some of which were introduced in earlier books in the series. Of course, the Chrestomanci plays a part in every story. The book was published in 2000, but some of the stories were published in the 1980s in other sources.

I really like these stories because some of them clear up issues that were unresolved in other books in the series. Like Cat, I assumed that Christopher Chant became the Chrestomanci on the death of Gabriel DeWitt, his predecessor, who was introduced in The Lives of Christopher Chant. But, it turns out that Chrestomanci isn’t always a job for life. Gabriel DeWitt actually retired from the job and had years of happy retirement. One of the stories in this book shows Gabriel DeWitt at the end of his lives. He had several left at the end of his career, more than either Christopher Chant or Eric “Cat” Chant (who is Christopher Chant’s young cousin and the next nine-lived enchanter in line to be Chrestomanci) has now. (The Chants seem to have a tendency to lose lives faster than other Chrestomancis both because they are more reckless in their youth than DeWitt was and because their own relatives have either actively killed them more than once or put them in extreme danger for personal gain. They are a complicated family.) We get to see that even nine-lived enchanters don’t live much beyond the age their human bodies can manage. When they get very old, they repeatedly die of old age, over and over, until they use up the last of their remaining lives.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

Stories in the Book:

Warlock at the Wheel

Following the adventures in Charmed Life, the Willing Warlock had his magical powers removed by Chrestomanci. With no way to pursue his usual work in magic, he turns to a life of crime. Unfortunately, he’s terrible at crime. He tries to steal a car and is almost caught by the police. He holds up a post office with a toy pistol and uses the money to pay a magician to send him to another world where he can have his magic again. When he reaches the new world, he can do magic again, and he attempts to continue his life of crime. It turns out that he isn’t any better at crime in the new world, though. He accidentally steals a car that also has a bossy little girl and an angry dog in it. There are some things that are worse than prison!

Stealer of Souls

This book starts after the events in The Magicians of Caprona. Chrestomanci invited Tonino Montana to visit England and have some training at Chrestomanci Castle. However, Cat Chant and Tonino don’t get along when they first meet. Cat resents Chrestomanci making him responsible for Tonino, who is younger. His cousins and Janet think Tonino is nice, and Chrestomanci is interested in learning more about Tonino’s unique abilities. Cat knows that he has no real reason to resent Tonino, but he does because Tonino is now the center of everyone’s attention. As the next Chrestomanci and the youngest of the children who normally live at the castle, Cat has become accustomed to everyone paying attention to him and looking after him instead of the other way around. He doesn’t really want someone to be his responsibility.

It gets worse when Gabriel DeWitt, the former Chrestomanci, says that he wants to meet Tonino. The current Chrestomanci can’t go to see him just now, so he sends Cat to DeWitt with Tonino. Cat has met Gabriel DeWitt before, but he finds it difficult to talk to him because DeWitt is a very old man and an old-fashioned one, and Cat has to be on his very best behavior around him. When he first learned about being a Chrestomanci, Cat assumed that the new one didn’t take over until the previous one was dead, but Gabriel actually retired from the job when Christopher Chant’s training was complete, and he was ready to take over. However, now that Gabriel has gotten very old and sick, his remaining extra lives are leaving him as he repeatedly dies of old age. It’s alarming to Cat, who doesn’t want to watch him die. Yet, it’s important for Cat to see DeWitt one more time because DeWitt has something important to tell him.

DeWitt believes than an evil enchanter called Neville Spiderman is stalking him and that he’s trying to get hold of both Christopher’s and Cat’s extra lives. Everyone else thinks that DeWitt is imagining things because of his poor health. Neville Spiderman lived long before DeWitt himself, and everyone believes that he’s dead. DeWitt insists that Neville Spiderman has the ability to travel through time and tells the boys to warn Christopher of the danger.

However, as the boys take the train back to Chrestomanci Castle, their memories suddenly leave them. They become confused about exactly who they are and where they are going. All Cat remembers is that he’s supposed to look after Tonino. A stranger takes charge of them and delivers the boys to a strange house in London, where they are told that they are apprentices who have just arrived from the poor house.

The owner of this house is Neville Spiderman, who tells them that his workshop exists outside of normal time. He has managed to keep himself alive much longer than a normal person, and he is working on a spell to turn himself into a ten-lived enchanter in an attempt to become more powerful than any Chrestomanci. Part of the trouble is that he needs to know which of the boys is Eric Chant, and with their memories affected, neither of the boys is entirely sure, either. They can tell that they’re in danger and that Spiderman is planning to kill one or both of them. Spiderman needs two more souls from nine-lived enchanters to complete his collection. All that Cat remembers for certain is that he’s supposed to look after Tonino as the boys struggle to remember who they are and how to use their powers.

In this story, we learn that Tonino’s mother, Elizabeth, who was originally from England, was one of the children with magical abilities who were brought to Chrestomanci Castle to study and act as companions to Christopher Chant, the current Chrestomanci, at the end of The Lives of Christopher Chant. We also see Mordecai and Rosalie, two other characters from that book.

Carol Oneir’s Hundredth Dream

Although Carol Oneir is young, she is already famous for her dreams. She has the ability to control her dreams and make it possible for wizards to bottle her dreams and sell them for other people to enjoy. Then, on the night when she is about to have her 100th dream, she is unable to do it. Days go by, and she cannot seem to dream at all. Carol is very upset, but the doctors can’t seem to find anything wrong with her. Carol’s father is an old school friend of Chrestomanci’s, so he asks Chrestomanci if he can help Carol. After the adventure in the previous story, Chrestomanci is vacationing in the south of France with his family, and he asks his old friend and his wife to bring Carol to him there.

When Chrestomanci insists on talking to Carol alone, he discusses her methods for dreaming and her past dreams, evaluating them like a reviewer would a series of books. In a way, that’s what Carol’s dreams are, like stories or books meant to be enjoyed by other people while they sleep. Chrestomanci realizes that part of Carol’s problem is that she’s too self-conscious. Her dreams have all been made public, her mother constantly monitors her and urges on her success, and she is often interviewed for newspapers for details of her life. There are some private thoughts that Carol has had that she can’t bring herself to tell anyone, and something is happening in her 100th dream that she can’t even bring herself to tell herself.

When Carol tries to dream once more, she learns that all of the characters in her dreams are on strike. Her characters are angry with her for their living and working conditions. They get no time off, some of them get killed off in her dreams, her main hero and heroine don’t really want to marry each other, and none of them get credit or compensation for their work. Carol has completely misunderstood her characters. She has underestimated how real they are, and she has cast them in the wrong roles, ones that are really unsuited to their true personalities. They all need some time to be themselves and relax between story dreams. When it comes right down to it, so does Carol. She’s as much in a rut as her characters, and she also needs some time to develop her own personality and understanding of other people and to come up with new story concepts. Everyone needs a vacation and some privacy sometimes.

Carol’s characters drink alcohol in this story, something that shocks Carol herself because she never allows them to do that in the course of her dreams. Her dreams are meant primarily for girls her age, so they’re age-appropriate, but the alcohol use is part of the characters showing Carol that they have their own independent personalities and need time to themselves to do more adult things outside the setting of her dream stories.

The Sage of Theare

The world of Theare is extremely orderly. Even their heaven and gods are very precise, with everyone knowing their rule and following detailed rules. Then, one day, the gods learn that the prophesied Sage of Dissolution has been born! According to the prophecy, this Sage will question everything and break down the order of this carefully-ordered world. The gods are fearful of the chaos this will bring, so they decide that they must put a stop to it by finding and killing the Sage before he can grow up and start asking his questions.

I’ve always found the different ways fantasy books approach the subject of religion interesting. Some fantasy authors try to ignore the issue altogether because they don’t want religious beliefs to disrupt the fantasy elements or change the way people look at them. Others try to invent or adopt religions that match the fantasy elements. The universe of Chrestomanci is based on the concepts of parallel worlds, different dimensions, and alternate realities, which leaves quite a lot of possibilities open. Religion or religious concepts enter into all or most of the books at some point. There’s a world that’s supposed to be “our” world, where things work like they do in real life, and Chrestomanci’s related world, where the religions that we know exist alongside magic, accepted as normal by their society. There are churches and cathedrals and clergy, and Chrestomanci himself seems to be a Christian, as established in earlier books. He attends church and is friendly with clergy members. When he was younger, he once thought that his mother might want him to grow up and become a missionary because of the way she talked about missionaries, and he says that he doesn’t believe in the “heathen” gods and goddesses of other worlds, initially not even believing that the girl he ends up marrying is really the avatar of a goddess in the world where she was born. It was eventually proved in The Lives of Christopher Chant that the goddess was real, at least within that particular world, although that story kind of hints that much of the magic Millie did was her own magic as a powerful enchantress, not necessarily the goddess’s. I’m still not sure whether Millie is still supposed to be one of the goddess’s incarnations or not, but since she’s living an independent life in another world now, it no longer seems to matter, except that her magic is very powerful. In this story, Christopher Chant, regardless of what his inner beliefs are, is not afraid to tell actual gods what he thinks of their plans when they’re in the wrong.

This particular story establishes the idea that, in this universe, religion and heaven and gods or goddesses are all individual to each individual world. Each world has its own Heaven and at least one god or goddess, and these are distinct from those in other worlds, so what’s true about each of these varies depending on the world where the story is set. (There may not be an over-arching God of the entire universe in this fictional universe, or if there is, there is no explanation of that.) In this particular story, all the religious rules point to order, and the gods themselves love rules. They are terrified of the concepts of disorder and chaos. However, when they decide that they’re going to eliminate the Sage of Dissolution, they have a problem. They’re not really sure which of the worlds he’s in or where exactly he will be asking all of his questions. They search and search, but they can’t seem to find him.

Then, one of the gods, Imperion, takes a break and visits the mortal woman he loves, Nestara. He is devoted and faithful to her, and he loves the small son they already have, Thasper. Thasper was very slow to learn to speak, but now that he has … he has started asking questions. To his shock, Imperion realizes that Thasper is the Sage of Dissolution. It’s just that nobody realized it until he gained enough ability to speak to start asking his questions. Imperion can’t bring himself to kill his own son, so he decides to take him to another world, out of the reach of the other gods. He tells Nestara that the other gods have approved of making Thasper a god, too, and he must take him to be the cupbearer of the Great Zond, the highest god. He puts Thasper into a sphere of forgetfulness to make him stop asking questions and makes sure to take Thasper to a world with kind people who will raise him. When he admits to the other gods what he’s done, they are satisfied that the problem of the Sage is settled and that he will not interfere with their orderliness.

Thasper spends several years in his sphere of forgetfulness, not aging, but when someone finds him, the spell ends. As soon as he is out of the sphere, he starts asking questions again. The people of this world don’t mind answering his questions, but they can tell that he’s not from their world. After a little experiment, they figure out that he is from Theare and that he was probably sent to their world because someone found him too disruptive. They return him to Theare and, through magic, convince a woman who has just lost her own son, that Thasper is her son. She and her husband take him in and raise him. He still pesters everyone with questions, and his new mother does her best to answer them.

Then, one day, Thasper receives a message from Chrestomanci (delivered by Cat, who is starting to travel through other worlds as part of his Chrestomanci training), who tells him that his situation is an odd one and that he should call him when he finally meets himself face-to-face. Thasper doesn’t know what means at first. For several years, Thasper develops a fascination for the rules of his world. Rules make an interesting intellectual exercise, and Thasper enjoys thinking about them and making up new games with new rules, the more complicated, the better. Then, Thasper begins seeing messages around town that ask questions and make him think about rules in new ways. All of the messages are signed the Sage of Dissolution. Fascinated, Thasper keeps trying to meet up with the Sage of Dissolution and see him in person, but it seems like he always just misses him. He is going to need Chrestomanci’s help to catch up with himself! At that point, Chrestomanci tells the gods how they would have brought about their own end if they had succeeded in defeating their own prophecy. Of course, seeing the gods for himself answers some of Thasper’s questions, but he can still ask others.

Posted on by TracyC

Revenge of the Mummy

Clue

#13 Revenge of the Mummy by A. E. Parker, 1996.

This book is a collection of short solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries based on the Clue board game. Each book in the series contains short mysteries that the reader is urged to attempt to solve before the characters do. The solutions to the mysteries come after each chapter.

Most of the mysteries involve a crime of some kind, but not all. Sometimes, characters try to steal things from each other, but there’s also a scavenger hunt, an ice cream tasting party, and a hot air balloon race.

In the final chapter of the book, it seems like Boddy, our host, has been murdered, and the reader has to solve his murder, just like in a game of Clue. However, Mr. Boddy doesn’t actually die. It’s a pattern in the series that he seems to have been killed in each book, but he always survives somehow to reappear in other books in the series.

At the end of the previous book of solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries, it looked like Mr. Boddy had been murdered, but at the beginning of this book, he explains how he survived. All of the books in the series follow this pattern. There’s generally a humorous twist to how he survives and explains the situation.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

The Stories in the Book:

The Lion Ring – Mr. Boddy has obtained a new treasure for his collection: an ancient and valuable ring with a lion on it that once belonged to an African king. Naturally, his sticky-fingered guests all want it for themselves.

Full of Hot Air – Mr. Boddy and his guests are having a hot-air balloon race. Who will be the winner?

Urge to Earn an Urn – Mr. Boddy stops Mrs. White and Mrs. Peacock from arranging flowers in an old urn they found in the basement. It turns out that it’s a valuable Greek urn, and when the other guests realize it, someone plots to steal it.

Please Don’t Sneeze – Miss Scarlet is coming down with a cold and spreading it among the other guests. Mr. Boddy introduces them to his grandmother’s secret cold remedy.

For Goodness’ Snakes! – Mr. Boddy’s guests are frightened of his new pet boa constrictor, but when they try to catch the snake, the snake catches one of them.

The Inky Trail – Mr. Boddy has discovered that someone attempted to forge his signature on a $250,000 bond. Fortunately, the forger tried to use the pen that explodes ink if anyone other than Mr. Boddy uses it. Mr. Boddy thinks that it’s going to be easy to track down the ink-stained guest, but it’s more complicated than he thinks.

The Scavenger Hunt – Mr. Boddy’s guests are bored one evening, so he starts a scavenger hunt with them.

Screaming for Ice Cream – Mr. Boddy has an ice cream tasting party with his guests to determine the best flavor. However, not everyone is willing to eat certain flavors of ice cream. Readers have to determine who is the only person who tried every flavor.

Caught Bare-Handed – Someone attempts a daring but unsuccessful theft of Mr. Boddy’s priceless chandelier, which sends it crashing. Who was the attempted thief?

Revenge of the Mummy – Mr. Boddy shows his guests the mummy case that he has recently acquired. The guests are a little too fascinated after someone mentions that mummies were buried with their valuables. Mr. Boddy warns the guests that the mummy may get angry and seek revenge, but they don’t believe it … until someone has an encounter with the mummy.

Posted on by TracyC

The Screaming Skeleton

Clue

#10 The Screaming Skeleton by A. E. Parker, 1995.

This book is a collection of short solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries based on the Clue board game. Each book in the series contains short mysteries that the reader is urged to attempt to solve before the characters do. The solutions to the mysteries come after each chapter.

Most of the mysteries involve a crime of some kind, but not all. Sometimes, characters try to steal things from each other, but there’s also an apple-bobbing contest at a Halloween party, a snowball fight, and a pie-eating contest.

In the final chapter of the book, it seems like Boddy, our host, has been murdered, and the reader has to solve his murder, just like in a game of Clue. However, Mr. Boddy doesn’t actually die. It’s a pattern in the series that he seems to have been killed in each book, but he always survives somehow to reappear in other books in the series.

At the end of the previous book of solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries, it looked like Mr. Boddy had been murdered, but at the beginning of this book, he explains how he survived. All of the books in the series follow this pattern. There’s generally a humorous twist to how he survives and explains the situation.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

The Stories in the Book:

Murder in the Cockpit – Mr. Boddy wants to take his guests for a flight on his private jet, but a fight breaks out over seating arrangements.

Baby Booty – Mr. Boddy has to watch his young nephew for a while, and he bribes his guests into helping him. Various guests take turns trying to make baby Frank happy, and readers are asked to figure out who has Frank.

Dance Until You Drop – Mr. Boddy and his guests were planning to have a croquet tournament, but they had to cancel it due to rain. To cheer everyone up, Mr. Boddy starts a dance party, but a couple of his guests take advantage of the situation and steal Miss Scarlet’s necklace.

The Halloween Costume Caper – Mr. Boddy is having a Halloween party for his friends, and he wants everyone to come in costume. When the guests arrive, no one is sure who is wearing which costume, but their identities are gradually revealed during a highly competitive game of bobbing for apples, where the guests are trying to find the apple that contains a “gold nugget.”

The Snowball Effect – It’s snowing, and the guests are getting on each other’s nerves because they’re cooped up inside. To change the mood, Mr. Boddy enlists everyone in a snowball fight. It’s up to the readers to determine who won from the information given.

The Case is All Sewed Up – Mr. Boddy is having an heirloom quilt restored, but the guests become interested when he says that one his ancestors hid the family treasures in the quilt during WWI. What are the Boddy family treasures, and who gets their hands on them?

Pie in Your Eye – Mr. Boddy is holding a pie-eating contest with his friends that unfortunately ends in a food fight. But, who is the winner?

Pea is for Pretender – The guests are talking about fairy tales when Miss Scarlet says that, like the Princess and the Pea, she would bruise if she tried to sleep on top of a single pea. The guests decide to put her claim to the test, and Mr. Boddy promises her a crown if she really bruises from sleeping on a pea. However, Miss Scarlet enlists the help of another guest to fake the results of the test. Who is her confederate?

The Thanksgiving Murder – Thanksgiving starts off peacefully enough with various guests volunteering to help Mrs. White prepare the meal and set the table … at least until Miss Scarlet realizes that Mrs. Peacock has removed her valuable jade ring and set it aside while helping. After Miss Scarlet swipes the ring, it changes hands several more times as others notice and take it for themselves. It’s up to the readers to figure out who finally ends up with it.

The Screaming Skeleton – Mr. Boddy unveils his latest acquisition – a skeleton made entirely of platinum. He’s planning to sell it to a museum, but of course, his guests plot to either steal the skeleton (or parts of it) or intercept the money from the museum. But, knowing his guests as he does, Mr. Boddy has also installed a security device on the skeleton that screams when someone tries to touch it.

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Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles and Other Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol, 1975.

The Idaville police department has an excellent record, but that’s because the chief of police’s ten-year-old son is Encyclopedia Brown. People praise Chief Brown, and Chief Brown doesn’t feel like he can admit how much help his son gives him because he doubts anyone would believe him. Encyclopedia himself doesn’t want to admit to other people that he helps his father figure out tough cases because he doesn’t want to seem too different from the others kids at school. However, Encyclopedia also has a detective business, helping the neighborhood kids to solve their problems for only 25 cents a day, plus expenses. Sally, a smart and tough girl, is his partner in the detective business, and Bugs Meany, a bully who’s the leader of a local gang of youths called the Tigers, is their main nemesis, although they also deal with other bullies and criminals.

I always liked Encyclopedia Brown books when I was a kid! There are a couple of instances where modern kids might not understand the solutions to some cases because of certain habits and traditions that modern people don’t follow anymore. There is one case in this book in particular that I didn’t understand when I was a kid, and I wouldn’t expect modern kids to get the answer, either.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

Stories in the Book:

The Case of the Dead Eagles

Encyclopedia is camping with his friend Charlie Stewart when they hear a gunshot. When they go to investigate, they find a dead eagle. They think they know who’s responsible because this person has killed eagles before. Can they prove it in time to save the mother and babies from the same fate?

The Case of the Hypnotism Lesson

A boy named Dave hires Encyclopedia because he thinks Bugs Meany cheated him. (Always a likely possibility in anything Bugs does.) This time, Bugs charged Dave a dollar for a lesson on hypnotizing lobsters. Dave saw Bugs and his friends cooking and eating lobsters they had caught earlier, and Bugs told him that the secret to catching lobsters is to hypnotize them. However, when Dave gave him the money, Bugs just showed that he could pick up a lobster, and the lobster wouldn’t move. He didn’t actually show Dave any hypnotism and refused to teach him anything unless he paid more money. Dave realizes that Bugs was trying to trick him and wants his money back. When Encyclopedia sees a picture that one of Bugs’s friends took, he knows how to prove that Dave was cheated.

The Case of the Parking Meters

Both Encyclopedia and his detective partner Sally have received phone calls asking them to meet people at different locations, but each time, they waited around, and nobody showed up. They’re starting to suspect that this is another of Bugs Meany’s tricks, trying to get back at Encyclopedia for foiling his schemes. Sure enough, Bugs Meany shows up at Encyclopedia’s house with a police officer, claiming that Encyclopedia is running a racket to get money from people parked at parking meters by putting money in the meters, telling them that they’ve been saved from the fine for an expired meter, and asking them for money for the favor. The police officer isn’t sure that such a thing is actually illegal, although he’d have to inquire with a judge about the matter. Bugs claims that he could prove what happened except that Sally stole the film that he had of Encyclopedia putting money in the meters. When Bugs manages to “find” the film where Sally supposedly ditched it after taking it, Encyclopedia points out why Bugs’s story can’t be true. The solution would make more sense to somebody who understands how reel-to-reel films work.

The Case of the Hidden Will

Encyclopedia’s father, Chief Brown, tells him that a wealthy man named Brandon King has died, but his will is mysteriously missing. Evidently, Mr. King hid the will himself and swore his own lawyer to secrecy about it. The reason for the secrecy is apparently because one of Mr. King’s four sons, who all helped to run the family business, is a thief. Mr. King’s friends knew that was the case, although none of them knew which son it was. Mr. King’s lawyer gave Chief Brown a note written by Mr. King which hints at which son is the thief and saying that his property will go to the other three sons. Chief Brown isn’t sure which of the Kings is considered the “odd King out” until Encyclopedia tells him who it has to be, and Encyclopedia also tells him where the will is.

The Case of the Mysterious Thief

Encyclopedia and Sally go to a restaurant to order a pizza for lunch. While they’re waiting for their pizza, someone attacks the owner’s daughter in the ladies’ room and steals the money she was going to take to the bank. The owner’s daughter is very strong, and it must have taken someone very strong to overpower her and knock her unconscious so quickly and easily. It doesn’t seem likely that it would be a woman, but people would have noticed if a man had gone into the ladies’ room. Sally figures out the answer to this one, but it isn’t likely that modern readers. I didn’t get it when I was a kid, either, because the solution is based on an old piece of etiquette in restaurant seating that I don’t think people observe anymore.

The Case of the Old Calendars

Encyclopedia and Sally hurry over to Butch Mulligan’s house because they hear that Butch is fighting Bugs Meany and the Tigers. Butch is a big, strong 18-year-old, and the Tigers are no match for him. Encyclopedia asks Butch’s younger brother how the fight started, and he explains that Butch’s math teacher recently moved and gave Butch a stack of old calendars with some cool Civil War pictures on them. Then, Bugs claimed that he asked the teacher for those calendars himself, but the teacher forgot. He produced a note supposedly from the teacher that asks Butch to share the calendars with Bugs. Butch was willing to share, but there are an odd number of calendars, and Butch thinks Bugs cheated on the coin flip they had to determine who would get the odd one. He probably did, but Encyclopedia can prove that Bugs faked the note from the teacher, too.

The Case of Lightfoot Louie

Only a few days before the state worm-racing championship, Encyclopedia’s friend Thad accidentally stepped on his prize worm. It’s sad, but as a member of the Worm Racers’ Club of America, Thad can time other people’s worms to be entered in the race. He’s worried because Hoager Dempsey wants him to time a worm, and if he says the worm isn’t fast enough to enter the race, Hoager might beat him up. Thad asks Encyclopedia and Sally to watch the time trial as witnesses to make sure there’s no foul play.

The Case of the Broken Window

John Hall is a wealthy man with an impressive stamp collection. Some of his stamps are worth thousands of dollars. One evening, he calls Chief Brown and asks him to come to his house but to wear a costume because he’s giving a costume party, and he doesn’t want his guests to know that he’s called the police. Chief Brown and Encyclopedia put on their Halloween costumes and go to the Hall estate to investigate the theft of one of Hall’s expensive stamps. Hall thinks one of his guests is the thief, but which one?

The Case of the Gasoline Pill

“Twinkletoes” Willis is a young track star, and he comes to see Encyclopedia about a run-in that he had with Wilford Wiggins, a local high school dropout who’s into get-rich-quick schemes. Wilford has called a meeting of local kids at the city dump to tell them his latest money-making idea, which can only mean trouble. Wilford’s latest money-maker is a pill which he says allows cars to drive thousands of miles if you put it in the gas tank. Fortunately, Encyclopedia knows just how to prove that Wilford is a fraud.

The Case of the Pantry Door

Hilda’s hobby is fly hunting, and she’s a crack shot with rubber bands. She invites Encyclopedia and Sally to a little birthday party that she’s having for her pet frog, who lives in the birdhouse in her backyard. When Encyclopedia and Sally go into the pantry at Hilda’s house for sugar for catching flies, someone locks them in and steals the household money that Hilda’s mother hid in the kitchen. Hilda’s cousin, Lois, says that she saw a boy running away from the house, but Encyclopedia knows who really took the money.

Posted on by TracyC

TACK into Danger

TACK into Danger by Marvin Miller and Nancy K. Robinson, 1983.

This book is part of the TACK mystery series, which is very much like the Encyclopedia Brown series, although it’s not as well known and doesn’t have as many books. In fact, my copy references Encyclopedia Brown on the back: “Move over Encyclopedia Brown … make way for the TACK Team!”

The books in the series are collections of short mysteries that readers are invited to solve along with the characters before looking at the answers. TACK is an acronym for the names of the main characters. They’re kind of a mystery-solving club of neighborhood kids, although they say that they don’t really have a clubhouse or regular meetings. They just help out members of their community by solving problems whenever they can.

T = Toria – Her full name is Victoria Gardner, but she doesn’t like being called Vicky. She is the one who narrates the stories. She wants to be a newspaper reporter when she grows up, and she considers the journals she keeps of the group’s cases to be good writing practice.

A = Abby – Her full name is Abby Pinkwater. Abby and Toria were best friends before she moved away. Now, Abby is considered their “Agent-on-Remote” because the others still consider her part of the group, and she still comes back to visit and becomes involved with their mysteries, even though she no longer lives close.

C = Chuck – Chuck is the best speller at school, and his participation in a spelling bee is part of one of the stories.

K = Will – His full name is Will Roberts, and he’s the leader of the group, although he leads in a very informal way. Will’s initial is the odd one out. They use ‘K’ in place of his initial both because it makes their acronym easier to pronounce and because ‘K’ stands for “SWITCH” in telegraph language, and they think that’s an appropriate code name for him “because of the way his mind can switch all over the place.”

Overall, I like the characters in the stories, and I think they’re well-written. They would be of interest to people who like Encyclopedia Brown and similar types of Solve-It-Yourself style mysteries.

Stories in the Book:

The Comic Book Caper

Toria and Will are on their way to Will’s father’s hardware story, where they’re supposed to be helping out, when Toria’s sister Holly says that she wants a comic book. Toria takes Holly to buy one so she’ll be entertained while the older kids are helping at the store. While Holly is looking for a comic to buy, Toria overhears a couple of rough sailors talking about someone they’re waiting to meet. They don’t know what the man they’re waiting for looks like, but there’s a code word that he’s supposed to use. Unfortunately, the code word turns out to be the name of the comic Holly wants to buy, and the men start following Holly, thinking that she might be some kind of courier. Toria is afraid of what the men might do to Holly because her comic contains a secret message relating to a boat that’s recently been stolen.

Spelldown!

Chuck is taking part in the county spelling bee, but the bad news is that so is a kid from Monrose, and the Monrose kids are known to be cheaters. The meanest kid at Monrose (and that’s saying something) is Red Jamieson, and he’s made it known that he’s going to do something terrible to Chuck if he doesn’t let the Monrose student win the spelling bee. Will tells Chuck not to worry about that because he’ll come up with a plan to distract Red so he won’t have time to come after him. One thing that Red can never refuse is a chance to bet on something. After the spelling bee, Will offers Red the chance to hit him while the two of them are standing very close together, but only on the condition that he pick the spot where they’ll stand.

The Great Blueberry Pie Robbery

Will and Cyrus are spending the day with Toria’s family. They were going to have a cookout, but they have to change their plans because it rains. Instead, they decide to spend their time inside, reading. However, Cyrus brings Toria’s mother some blueberries, which she makes into a pie. Everyone is looking forward to having the pie after dinner, but when dinner ends, they discover that someone has eaten all of the filling out of the pie. Toria’s mother demands to know who the guilty party is, and this time, Toria is the one who comes up with the solution.

TACK into Danger

Abby comes to visit her friends for the summer, and they tell her about the cases they’ve recently solved, especially the one about the boat theft. As their reward for catching the thieves, they’ve been getting free sailing lessons from the boat owner, Johnny, and Abby gets to join them. However, while they’re out sailing, someone else driving their motorboat recklessly breaks a sign and rocks their boat. The boom swings over and hits Johnny in the face, breaking his nose. The kids need to get Johnny to the Coast Guard station, but how will they figure out which way to go with the sign broken?

Zoo TACT-tics

Will’s aunt takes the kids to the zoo along with her young son, Nicholas. While they’re at the zoo, they spot a dog who has somehow found his way into the polar bear enclosure. Fortunately, the polar bear is asleep, but can they get the dog out without waking the bear?

E-Z Parties, Inc.

Holly’s birthday is coming up, and Toria’s mother is overwhelmed with playing for it. Every year, it seems like Holly’s birthday part is difficult: kids fighting and crying, Holly not wanting to invite certain girls to the party, Holly wanting to buy a wedding cake she saw in a store window, etc. Toria’s mother wishes someone else could handle all the fuss, so she hires Toria and Will to do it. They manage to pull off the party without the kids getting into any fights, although it gets tricky when trying to divide a piece of cake between a set of twins in a way that satisfies each of them.

Halloween Shadows

Toria isn’t happy that her mother made her a haystack costume for Halloween because it feels clumsy and it’s difficult to see out of. As soon as she and Will are finished taking their younger siblings trick-or-treating, she makes herself a ghost costume for when she and Will are going to meet Chuck for more trick-or-treating by themselves. However, while she’s waiting for the boys, she sees someone in a skeleton costume like Will’s with someone dressed like a ghost and follows them into the graveyard, where they climb a tree and just look down at her creepily. At first, Toria thinks the boys are playing a trick on her, but then Will shows up, proving that the kid in the tree wearing a skeleton costume isn’t him. It’s just a coincidence that there are two sets of kids wearing similar costumes. However, some angry adults come along because a kid in a skeleton costume and a kid in a ghost costume just played some nasty tricks at their houses. When the adults see that there are two sets of kids who look alike, can Toria and Will prove to them that the pranksters are the other kids?

Posted on by TracyC

TACK Secret Service

TACK Secret Service by Marvin Miller and Nancy K. Robinson, 1982.

This book is part of the TACK mystery series, which is very much like the Encyclopedia Brown series, although it’s not as well known and doesn’t have as many books. In fact, my copy references Encyclopedia Brown on the back: “Move over Encyclopedia Brown … make way for the TACK Team!”

The books in the series are collections of short mysteries that readers are invited to solve along with the characters before looking at the answers. TACK is an acronym for the names of the main characters. They’re kind of a mystery-solving club of neighborhood kids, although they say that they don’t really have a clubhouse or regular meetings. They just help out members of their community by solving problems whenever they can.

T = Toria – Her full name is Victoria Gardner, but she doesn’t like being called Vicky. She is the one who narrates the stories. She wants to be a newspaper reporter when she grows up, and she considers the journals she keeps of the group’s cases to be good writing practice.

A = Abby – Her full name is Abby Pinkwater. Abby and Toria were best friends before she moved away. Now, Abby is considered their “Agent-on-Remote” because the others still consider her part of the group, and she still becomes involved with their mysteries, even though she no longer lives close.

C = Chuck – The stories in this book don’t explain very much about Chuck and his background compared to the other characters, although he has a dog named Duchess who is the subject of one of the stories.

K = Will – His full name is Will Roberts, and he’s the leader of the group, although he leads in a very informal way. Will’s initial is the odd one out. They use ‘K’ in place of his initial both because it makes their acronym easier to pronounce and because ‘K’ stands for “SWITCH” in telegraph language, and they think that’s an appropriate code name for him “because of the way his mind can switch all over the place.”

Overall, I like the characters in the stories, and I think they’re well-written. They would be of interest to people who like Encyclopedia Brown and similar types of Solve-It-Yourself style mysteries.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Stories in the Book:

TACK Secret Service: Operation Goldfish

The kids are getting ready for the science fair at school. They are not looking forward to the arrival of kids from a rival school because they don’t play fair, and a boy called Red Jamieson sometimes deliberately wrecks other kids’ projects. Will is helping a boy named Hugo to protect his project because someone stole the plans for the project the day before. The kids suspect Red and his friend, Lester. As the kids try to maintain surveillance on the exhibits, someone steals one of their walkie talkies and threatens to ruin it if they don’t turn over Hugo’s invention for remotely feeding goldfish.

The Locked House Mystery

Will and his brother Cyrus are staying with Toria’s family for a few days while their parents are on a skiing trip. The only problem is that Toria’s family has a cat, and Cyrus is allergic to cats. At first, they think it will be okay because Cyrus has his allergy pills, but it turns out that he forgot them at home, and he also forgot the house key. How can they get his allergy medicine from a locked house when they can’t reach the spare key?

The Pirates of Sandy Harbor

Toria is writing a report about the founder of their town, Simon Hawk, but she needs more information. She goes to the local historical society, but there, she discovers that an old note has been found that indicates that Simon Hawk may not have been the hero that everyone believes he is. Rather than chasing off the pirates that plagued the area, he may have been in league with them! Toria can’t finish her report until she knows the truth, but fortunately, Will spots something about the message that clarifies everything.

The Dance of the Trees

Toria’s sister, Holly, is in a dance recital with her ballet class where the best dancer in class gets to be a fairy, and the other girls get to be living trees. (Holly isn’t thrilled about that until she see the tree costumes, which are pretty cool.) Unfortunately, the girl playing the part of the fairy gets sick, and there isn’t enough time for someone else to learn her part. What can they do?

A Slipper for Ripper

Chuck worries that his mother will give away his dog, Duchess, if she doesn’t stop chewing things. They’ve tried giving her all kinds of chew toys, but she doesn’t like any of them. She just wants to chew things that belong to people. Will’s younger brother, Cyrus, thinks he’s found a solution, figuring out how to make what he calls “dognip.” However, when they arrive at Chuck’s house, Duchess has a slipper belonging to Chuck’s mother. Cyrus hurriedly gets the slipper away from Duchess and throws it into the next yard, but that’s where the violent dog Ripper lives. At first, the kids’ attempts to distract the dog and get the slipper only make the situation worse, but Will figures out how they can retrieve everything from Ripper’s yard safely.

The Case of the Haunted Dollhouse

Toria’s best friend, Abby, who moved away before the beginning of the book, calls Toria to tell her that her family is coming back to town to visit her grandmother, and she can see Toria when they come. However, this isn’t just an ordinary visit. Abby’s family is concerned because her grandmother is acting strangely, and her parents are worried that she might be getting senile. She’s talking about selling the fantastic dollhouse that she’s had since she was little, which is now a family heirloom. She’s become afraid of it because she thinks it might be haunted.

The Haunted Dollhouse – Part II

The kids figure out what’s created the haunting phenomena in the doll house, but when they go to tell Abby’s grandmother about it, they learn that she’s moved out of the old family home where she also runs her antique shop because other strange things have been happening. The temperature in the house inexplicably drops, and she’s been hearing music that seems to come from the dollhouse with no apparent cause. The adults are still concerned about her mental state, but the kids realize that there’s someone who’s behind all the strange things that have been happening. Who is playing ghost?

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TACK to the Rescue

TACK to the Rescue by Marvin Miller and Nancy K. Robinson, 1982.

This is the first book in the TACK mystery series, which is very much like the Encyclopedia Brown series, although it’s not as well known and doesn’t have as many books.

The books in the series are collections of short mysteries that readers are invited to solve along with the characters before looking at the answers. TACK is an acronym for the names of the main characters. They’re kind of a mystery-solving club of neighborhood kids, although they say that they don’t really have a clubhouse or regular meetings. They just help out members of their community by solving problems whenever they can.

T = Toria – Her full name is Victoria Gardner, but she doesn’t like being called Vicky. She is the one who narrates the stories. She wants to be a newspaper reporter when she grows up, and she considers the journals she keeps of the group’s cases to be good writing practice.

A = Abby – Her full name is Abby Pinkwater. Abby and Toria were best friends before she moved away, which happened before the series even begins. Now, Abby is considered their “Agent-on-Remote” because the others still consider her part of the group, and she still becomes involved with their mysteries, even though she no longer lives close. She sometimes comes to visit or writes letters to the others about problems at her new school.

C = Chuck – His older sister Kate gets married in the first story in this this book, and during the field day story, the other kids say that he’s the best cyclist at school. Toward the end of this book, they mention that Chuck has just gotten a puppy named Duchess, which would actually make this book the first book in the series, before the one that’s often listed first.

K = Will – His full name is Will Roberts, and he’s the leader of the group, although he leads in a very informal way. Will’s initial is the odd one out. They use ‘K’ in place of his initial both because it makes their acronym easier to pronounce and because ‘K’ stands for “SWITCH” in telegraph language, and they think that’s an appropriate code name for him “because of the way his mind can switch all over the place.”

Overall, I like the characters in the stories, and I think they’re well-written. They would be of interest to people who like Encyclopedia Brown and similar types of Solve-It-Yourself style mysteries. Many of the problems and solutions to the mysteries in this book are popular logic puzzle concepts.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Stories in the Book:

The Case of the Invisible Skunk

Chuck’s older sister, Kate, is getting married. There’s a big tent in the backyard, and his mother is busy making arrangements for the wedding. Then, something unexpected happens that his mother is afraid will ruin everything: a skunk has somehow found its way into their garage. Chuck’s mom doesn’t know how to get the skunk out of the garage without frightening it, and if it gets scared, it will spray and make the whole yard smell terrible. However, Will has another suggestion for solving the problem.

TACK to the Rescue

Will calls Toria and tells her that the light at the Corkhill lighthouse is out. It’s important because the lighthouse helps boats navigate around a dangerous area, and if the light is out, boats might crash on the rocks. Ordinarily, they could just take the ferry out to the light and fix it, but the ferry is also broken down. The man who normally runs the ferry is trying to repair it. The local fishing boats are also out, so they can’t even borrow a boat. The only boat the repairmen have is a little dinghy that will only hold one adult, but both of them are needed to repair the light. How can they use the dinghy to get both men out to the lighthouse before dark?

The Jungle Adventure Adventure

The kids’ class at school is going on a field trip to an amusement park called Jungle Adventure. However, they run into trouble when they encounter a tunnel that the bus is just slightly too high to go through. What are they going to do?

The Disappearing Penny

The town of Sandy Harbor is raising money for a new library. Various people are giving shows and holding sales to raise the funds. The kids are helping with a bake sale when Will’s little brother realizes that he accidentally charged three boys the wrong price for a brownie. He goes after them to give them the correct change, but he runs into a problem. He’s supposed to give them five cents, but since there are boys and the money can’t be divided evenly, he gives them three cents and spends the other two on bubble gum. However, he feels guilty about it and can’t figure out how to make the math of the situation come out right. Toria gives him a suggestion to straight it all out.

TACK Tactics

The fund raising for the new library was a success, so everyone is celebrating. However, they quickly realize that there’s a new problem: they forgot about the cost of moving the books from the old library to the new one. They don’t have enough money to cover the costs and buy the new furniture for the children’s room. Fortunately, Will comes up with a straightforward suggestion to solve the problem.

Holly and Her Pet Pingo

Abby returns to town for a visit, and they all take a trip to the nearby state park. Toria’s little sister Holly insists on bringing her pet ping-pong ball Pingo with her. When Pingo gets trapped in a hole, the kids have to figure out how to get it back.

The Day of the Monsters

The Sandy Harbor kids aren’t enthusiastic about the Fall Field Day because they’re competing against kids from a rival school called Monrose. The Monrose Monsters are known for cheating, so the Sandy Harbor kids know that the contests won’t be fair and that they’re going to lose. Will temporary distracts Red Jamieson, the meanest kid at Monrose, with a bet that he can kick a soccer ball so that it will move away from him and then come back to him on its own.

The Day of the Monsters – Part II

As the Fall Field Day continues, the Monrose Monsters are up to their usual tricks. The Monrose players kick the Sandy Harbor players during the soccer game, and Red Jamieson uses a mirror to blind the Sandy Harbor goalie so Monrose can score more goals. When the kids try to tell their gym teacher about it, she doesn’t really listen to them and tells them not to be sore losers. The kids realize that they’re on their own to deal with Monrose. The last race of the day is a bike race, and Chuck has to compete against Monrose mean girl Gretchen. However, there’s a twist to this contest: the gym teacher says that the winner of the contest is the one whose bicycle finishes last. How is that going to work?

The Case of the Telltale Tattletale

At the end of the tortuous field day, Red Jamieson jumped off the bleachers on top of Will, who was sitting nearby, breaking Will’s leg. The adults are convinced that Red must have fallen, but the kids who witnessed the incident know better. Will has to stay home and rest while his leg heals. His friends bring him his schoolwork and letters from the other kids at school. Soon, Will is bored and restless. He’s tired of the puzzle books his friends have given him because he wants a real puzzle to work on. Fortunately, a letter from Abby brings him the mystery he’s looking for. Someone at her new school is writing nasty notes to her teacher about all the bad things people say about her behind her back. Some of the criticism of their teacher is true, but the other kids in class never meant to make her feel bad because they don’t like her jokes or think she looks funny. They’re also offended that one of the other students is spying on them and revealing things that they said in confidence. Some of the students are being punished by their parents for rude things they’ve said about the teacher, so they have reason to resent the class tattletale. All of the notes are signed with an odd ink blot. Can Will figure out who the poison pen tattletale is from his bed, 300 miles away?

Posted on by TracyC

The Mad Scientists Club

The Mad Scientists Club Series

The Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand R. Brinley, 1965, 2001.

The Mad Scientists Club series is about a group of boys who like science and make things in their clubhouse laboratory. Their inventions are often part of pranks that they play on their town, Mammoth Falls, but the boys also use their inventions and skills to help people. People in town are aware that the boys pull pranks and stunts, but they are often unable to prove the boys’ involvement in particular pranks, and the boys typically keep the methods they use secret.

Henry is the idea man of the group, and the club’s rival is a former member named Harmon. Harmon’s cousin is still a member of the Mad Scientists Club, and Harmon likes to spy on them and pump his cousin for information so he can mess up their plans out of spite.

Each chapter in the book is its own short story about the club’s antics. Some of the stories originally appeared in Boys’ Life magazine in the 1960s. The stories are a good fit for Boys’ Life because some of the skills the boys use are skills that are taught in Boy Scouts, like what to do when someone is injured and how to tie different types of knots.

The stories reference scientific and mathematical principles, and the boys are methodical in their approaches to the problems in each story. The technology is old by modern 21st century standards (and so are some cultural references, like McGee’s closet), but the principles are sound. There are no projects for readers to do themselves in the book, but it does occur to me that these types of stories could work well with some included activities or nonfiction accompaniment.

The first story in the book was made into a live action tv movie by Disney, The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove (1971), but the movie has different characters from the ones in the book. The Disney movie uses the same set of characters they used for their movie version of Secrets of the Pirates’ Inn (based on The Secrets of the Pirate Inn). The plot of The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove is also very different from the original story because, in the Disney movie, the kids don’t know what the “monster” is at first and need to investigate it, whereas the boys in the Mad Scientist Club know exactly what the monster is in their story because they built it themselves. You can watch the movie online through Internet Archive, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find an online copy of the book.

Stories in the Book:

The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake

Dinky accidentally starts a town-wide rumor about a sea monster in the lake when he makes up a story about seeing a strange creature in the lake when he needs an excuse for arriving home late. His friends know it’s just a story, but they decide to play along and build a monster of their own out of canvas and chicken wire and scare people as a prank. Even though people in town are scared of the monster, the attention the town receives is so good for local businesses, the boys can’t bring themselves to stop their prank. Instead, they decide to make their monster more elaborate, and things start to get out of hand. How can they end the hoax while saving the town’s image and avoiding punishment?

Night Rescue

An Air Force plane explodes near the town of Mammoth Falls. The pilot escaped from the plane, but he’s now lost in the woods. The local authorities are searching for him, and the boys in the club want to help. The mayor doesn’t want the kids involved, knowing their usual pranks and stunts, but the Air Force colonel is willing to let them help, if they think they can, because he just wants his pilot rescued. The boys use a flare to determine which way the parachuting pilot would have drifted, and then, they calculate about how far he would have drifted to find him.

The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls

The boys find an old department store manikin and keep it in their clubhouse until Henry gets the idea for how they can use it in an elaborate prank on the town’s Founder’s Day. They’re going to make the manikin fly!

The Secret of the Old Cannon

The town’s old cannon from the Civil War is a local landmark now. (We don’t know what state Mammoth falls is in, but there are statues of Confederate soldiers next to the cannon.) Years ago, the town filled the barrel with cement, so it can never fire again. Around the time that the cannon was filled in, there was a bank robbery in town, and some of the boys in the Mad Scientists Club think that the money might have been hidden in the cannon before it was filled with cement. The boys try to figure out how they can prove whether or not the money’s in there without removing all of the cement. Someone else also wants to know the answer to that, and the answer may be important to the upcoming race for mayor.

The Great Gas Bag Race

Henry has an idea for a new kind of balloon that he thinks will help the Mad Scientists Club win the balloon race, but the club’s rival, Harmon, is also entering the race.

The Big Egg

The boys are digging for fossils in the local quarry when they find a dinosaur egg! At first, they’re not quite sure what to do with it. They consider selling admission for people to come see it or maybe turning it over to a museum, but Henry announces that he has another idea. Henry wants to bury the egg in the ground and see if it hatches. It seems unlikely, but the other boys agree to try it. Then, when a couple of the boys go to check on the egg, they discover that it’s missing! They bring their friends back to look at it, and suddenly, the egg is there again! What’s going on? Did someone take the egg and then return it? Is this another one of Harmon’s tricks?

The Voice in the Chimney

One day, some of the boys in the club see Harmon throwing stones at an old, abandoned house in town while some girls watch him. Wondering what he’s doing, they get closer and hear him challenging the ghost that supposedly haunts the old house, trying to impress the girls with his bravery. The boys are disgusted because they know Harmon isn’t really that brave, and they hate seeing him show off for the girls. When they hear Harmon brag that he’s going to come back to the house at night, they tell the rest of their club, and the boys decide to put on a haunted house act of their own to scare Harmon. In the process, they also end up scaring the mayor and the chief of police!

Posted on by TracyC

Raggedy Andy Stories

Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle, 1920.

This book is part of the original Raggedy Ann series by its creator, Johnny Gruelle. The first book in the series was just about Raggedy Ann, but this book introduces a boy doll named Raggedy Andy. The explanation behind Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (according to the book, not real life) is that the two dolls belonged to a pair of childhood friends. One girl owned Raggedy Ann, and the other girl owned Raggedy Andy. At the beginning of this book, Raggedy Andy arrives by mail to join Raggedy Ann and the other dolls in Marcella’s nursery, supposedly sent to the author by the daughter of the woman who owned Raggedy Andy.

Every night when the humans in the house go to sleep, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and the other dolls and toys come to life and have adventures. Each chapter in the book is its own short story. Some of the stories have morals to them about being generous and making others happy. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny also make appearances.

These stories can make good bedtime stories for young children because there is nothing at all stressful about them. The book makes it clear from the very beginning that dolls cannot be hurt, so whatever they go through in their adventures, no real harm is ever done.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Project Gutenberg (multiple formats) and Internet Archive (multiple copies – including an audiobook). The LibriVox audiobook is also available on YouTube.

Stories in the Book:

How Raggedy Andy Came

The package with Raggedy Andy arrives, and the author is sees that Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann are glad to see each other again. The dolls cannot talk to each other in front of humans, but the author senses that they have things to say to each other, so he leaves them alone together.

The Nursery Dance

Raggedy Andy is brought to Marcella’s nursery with Raggedy Ann and Marcella’s other toys. When Marcella plays with her toys, she talks for them, but the toys have private thoughts of their own that they can’t say in front of her. After Marcella goes to bed, the toys begin to move about on their own and talk to each other. Raggedy Ann introduces Raggedy Andy to the other toys. Raggedy Andy has been stored in a trunk for a long time. Although, he was friends with a family of mice during that time, he is glad to be among other toys again.

The Spinning Wheel

The dolls in the nursery have a pillow fight and get feathers all over the floor. They clean up the feathers, but one of Raggedy Andy’s arms fall off in the right. (This doesn’t really hurt him because, as the book explains, Santa Claus gives the toys he makes a special wish that prevents them from being hurt by anything.) Raggedy Andy says that his arm has been loose for a while. The dolls say that maybe Raggedy Ann could sew it back on, but they need to find a needle and thread first. The dolls go on a daring expedition to the sewing room to get them. As Raggedy Ann repairs Raggedy Andy’s arms, she tells the dolls about another time when she repaired Raggedy Andy’s arm.

The Taffy Pull

Raggedy Andy suggests to the other dolls that they have a taffy pull. At first, the others think it’s a new kind of game, but Raggedy Andy explains that it’s a way to make candy. This is a good time for them to do it because Marcella and her parents are away, visiting relatives, so there is no one home to notice the dolls using the kitchen.

(This story actually contains a pretty good description of making homemade taffy, although the dolls aren’t hurt by touching hot, sticky candy, and a human child would be.)

The Rabbit Chase

Marcella’s dog, Fido, knows that the dolls can talk and also talks to them. One night, Fido hears a strange scratching sound. He wants to bark at it, but the dolls don’t want him to bark because it will wake the humans. They let Fido outside so he can see what the sound is. It turns out to be a rabbit, and the rabbit tries to hide from Fido by running into the house and hiding in the nursery. Raggedy Ann tells Fido to leave the rabbit along and asks the rabbit why it was scratching at their house. The rabbit explains that he is an Easter Bunny, and he only came to leave a basket of Easter Eggs for the children of the house.

The New Tin Gutter

When the house gets a new tin gutter, the dolls have fun sliding down it until a couple of penny dolls get lost down a drain pipe. Then, Raggedy Andy gets stuck trying to rescue them! The other dolls don’t know how to get them out and are afraid that they are lost forever. Then, it starts to rain, and when Marcella’s father notices that the drain seems plugged, he calls some workmen to figure out why the drain won’t work. The adults assume that Marcella must have put Raggedy Andy down the drain pipe when she was playing.

Doctor Raggedy Andy

Marcella sometimes likes to pretend that her dolls are ill and gives them medicine made out of water and brown sugar. However, one day, she leaves the French doll lying in bed after giving her medicine, and the medicine hardens so that her open-and-close eyes are stuck closed. The other dolls try to figure out how to help her, but it’s Raggedy Andy who figures out what to do.

Raggedy Andy’s Smile

Raggedy Andy’s smile is wearing off because Marcella’s little brother fed him orange juice. (Little Dicky isn’t sorry that he did this because he is only two years old, and as the book notes, two-year-olds don’t have many sorrows.) Raggedy Andy still feels like the happy doll he is even with only half a smile left, but Raggedy Ann says maybe they should wash Raggedy Andy’s face. The others don’t think it will do much good. They go downstairs and are surprised to see a man there. Immediately, the dolls act like they can’t move because the don’t want the humans to know that they come to life. However, this isn’t an ordinary man. This is Santa Claus! Santa Claus fixes Raggedy Andy’s face and smile and also gives the other dolls new painted faces and repairs other problems the dolls have.

The Wooden Horse

The children of the house get a new wooden horse on wheels for Christmas with a wooden wagon hitched to it. The horse takes some time figuring out how to move because he wasn’t used to moving when he was on a shelf in a toy shop. When the horse figures out how to move, he gives rides to the other dolls and toys. The other dolls think that the horse has more fun than anybody because people who make others happy are happier themselves.

Making ‘Angels’ in the Snow

Raggedy Andy has been away from the other dolls for a while because he got wet and frozen playing with Marcella in the snow at her grandmother’s house and needed to dry out and warm up. The others ask him how it happened, and he tells them about going sledding with Marcella and making snow angels. Then, Marcella left him outside on her sled, so he got frozen. In spite of this, Raggedy Andy thinks that it was an exiting time!

The Singing Shell

Marcella brings home a seashell from her grandmother’s house. At first, the dolls aren’t sure what to think of it. When the dolls listen at the mouth of the shell, they hear a whispering sound. As they listen, the whispering tells them the story of the shell and how it came from the ocean. The shell was found by a diver, who sold it to Marcella’s grandmother when she was young. The shell also sings, and the dolls enjoy hearing it sing.