Waiting at Art Class

Sarah is finishing her art class. I'll pick her up in a few minutes. I was finishing up the reshelving some books in the elementary school library when I ran across some favorites of my own childhood--Encyclopedia Brown.

I think I read every one of Donald Sobel's books growing up. In each Leroy (Encyclopedia) Brown solves all sorts of crimes in the small sea-side town of Idaville. Along with his fifth-grade partner Sally, Encyclopedia helps out the kids against the tricks and cons of Bugs Meaney, the leader of the local gang--the Tigers.

Encyclopedia also helps out his dad, the local sheriff, at times. Each story is six or seven pages long and to find out the answer to the crimes that are the central portion of every story, you have to turn to the back of the book.

When I saw a line of them in the library bookshelf, I knew I would stop restocking and flip through one of them.

I quickly read four stories in one of the books, was immediately reminded of the formula that each book is built upon. Unfortunately, I was no more successful in deciphering the crimes than I was when I was eight. Most of the solutions center around one blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail that I did miss during my skimming.

(I suppose that is why I never got perfect scores on my SATs. Stupid reading comprehension!)

But it was fun to take a literary trip down memory lane.

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In other blogs, there is this . . . (I can't think of, don't have time for a better transition here. Stupid lack of writing skills!)