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What do you get when you combine an extremely intelligent fifth-grade boy and a strong and savvy fifth-grade girl with a gang of mean boys, a police detective, and a neighborhood full of kids?
You get the sleuthing adventures of the Encyclopedia Brown series!
Leroy Brown is a boy with above-average deduction skills who is just smart enough to have been given the nickname Encyclopedia by his friends and family.
Encyclopedia is not afraid to stand up to bullies and he likes helping others. He discusses cases with his police detective dad and then he helps solve them. And Encyclopedia solves his own cases, too. Lots of them.
But he doesn’t always work alone. Sally is Encyclopedia’s sidekick. In addition to solving cases together, Sally and Encyclopedia stand up to the meanest boys in town—Bugs Meany and his gang, the Tigers.
Take our free Encyclopedia Brown Checklist to your local library!
Award-winning author Donald Sobol (1924-2012) included themes in his Encyclopedia Brown stories that every kid can relate to—wanting to outwit a competitor: finding ways to earn extra money, and hanging out with friends, to name a few. Of course, your kids will be satisfied when Encyclopedia catches the bad guy, but along the way they’ll also discover that they’re strengthening their own sleuthing skills, too. And with more than twenty-five books in the series, your mystery-loving kids will not lack for reading material.
The Encyclopedia Brown series may not be as eloquently written as The Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit, but Donald Sobol’s clever writing has earned his books a place among the most loved of all children’s literature. Sobol sprinkled the pages of his stories with loads of picture-perfect imagery, which is great for young language arts detectives, too! And Sobol’s expert character development weaves a thread of comfort and consistency through the series that keeps kids coming back to Encyclopedia Brown time and again.
Each book in the series is a collection of ten solvable mysteries that provide great independent reading for kids in third grade and up. Reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by the length of these short page-turners, and they’ll love that each chapter presents its own open and shut case in just 5-7 pages!
Your younger kids will enjoy listening to the cases during read-aloud time. Encyclopedia Brown audio books are a great way for your family to pass time together on a road trip. But be sure to put your own sleuthing skills to the test before you listen to Encyclopedia’s solution!
If you’re looking for some enjoyable, easy-to-digest chapter books to entice your children into the world of reading, Encyclopedia Brown is a great choice.
Author: Donald Sobol
Genre: children’s fiction, mystery
Interests: problem solving, mysteries, suspense
Suggested age range: ages 8-12
Gender preference: boy or girl
In the series: 28 books, 80-100 pages each
Do your kids need a little extra encouragement to read? Take our Encyclopedia Brown checklist to your local library and have your child check off books as he reads them!
Looking for more great chapter books? We’ve got you covered!
Anita
says:Great short stories for reading aloud. Highly recommend!
rameshwer yadav
says:i like mostly.
Jen
says:Going to get this set for my kiddo— he loves mystery stories!
Shelley
says:Oooo!! I just bought these for my nephew. Great to hear they get such good reviews. Sounds like they will be perfect for him.
Mary K
says:These books were a huge help with my son when he was about 10 years old and didn’t want to read anything. My husband suggested these, and my son reading took off.
Mary K
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you for sharing how these books helped your son become a reader, Mary K. That is very encouraging!
Mary
says:These are always a hit in my classroom of 3rd graders. I suggest starting out by reading aloud the first one, and then you have them hooked!
Laurie
says:I enjoyed these as a child, and now my kids read them.
Trisha
says:My son would love Encyclopedia Brown!
Jackie
says:I loved these books as a kid. Thanks for reminding me that they are out there. I’m looking forward to finding some for my son on our next library day.
D.
says:Thank you I was just becoming aware I was in need of help for ideas for reading for my younger son. This is a timely help.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou are welcome. I love when our blog posts are timely help for someone!
Marjorie Anderson
says:I forgot about these, my son loves mysteries, got to go to the library today :)
Liz
says:Thanks for the suggestion! My son is now hooked on reading because of this series :)
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceLiz,
This is great to hear!
Jessica
says:I loved Encyclopedia Brown books when I was younger.
Erin
says:I loved these as a child and can’t wait till my kids are old enough to read them. Thanks for the checklist!
carrie
says:Thank you for the recommendation! My older boys used to love reading these books and I needed that reminder to introduce them to my 10 year old.
Chrissy McCarthy
says:i loved encyclopedia brown as a kid…will have to get my kids to read them.
Amber
says:I think my son would love these.
Bunny M
says:I think my 9 yr old boy will love this series! I can’t wait to take him to the library and get him started! I about forgot about these books from my childhood…thank you for your wonderful suggestions!
Hadley Coble
says:My oldest DD loved these books! I need to introduce my upcoming 5th grader to them this year!
a
says:My sibs and I loved the original EB books as children!
Karen
says:Thanks for the recommendation. I would love to learn more about other reading recommendations that could be used to practice reading skills after each AAR level, or between levels. I have purchased Bob Books to use for grade . After we completed AAR Level 1 we followed the sets in order. Both my kiddos read a book each night and really liked that they could read a story aloud to Mom and Dad successfully with little to no struggling. Bob Books readers are a great set to invest in. My suggestion is for Marie Rippel and team, is to come up with a summer reading program for each level. Something that would help avoiding summer slide and practice/maintain reading skills. One book with multiple stories and a student pack.
Thanks,
Karen
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceKaren,
This is a lovely suggestion! We’ll definitely look into something like this. Thanks for the idea.
In the meantime, here is a list of ideas for additional reading material for after AAR 1 (we have a similar list for after AAR 2, if you are interested). We don’t know of another set of readers that will correlate exactly, so you may have to teach some new patterns (or teach some words as sight words which they’ll later learn are not really sight words). Some possibilities to go along with AAR 1:
Bob books, Sets 1 & 2 (as you are already aware of)
DK Flip the Page Rhyme and Read books: Pat the Cat, Jen the Hen, Mig the Pig, Tog the Dog, and Zug the Bug.
Usborne Very First Readers
Sonlight’s Grade K Fun Tales, and I Can Read It Book 1 (part of it)
Christian Liberty Press readers: It Is Fun to Read, and Pals and Pets
I See Sam Readers (also available for iPad for free)
Reading Teacher
Fun Phonics–the first 3 books
Progressive Phonics – These are free phonics books that can be read online or downloaded and used right away.
We Read Phonics has big pictures with one sentence. Example of level 1 is “Bugs on the Bus”. Example of level 2 is “Which Pet is Best”.
Books by Nora Gaydos (the customer who suggested this said they are expensive but a library might have them).
We Both Read books. On the left hand pages there is text for the parent to read and on the right is text for the kids to read. Here’s an example.
The Core Knowledge LA Kindergarten readers are mostly decodable after AAR/AAS level 1. The readers start at unit 6. Unit 10 (the last Kindergarten unit) has some silent e words, which AAR doesn’t introduce until AAR 2. They’re free to download:
Unit 6
Unit 7
Unit 8
Unit 9
Jo Ann Rawleigh
says:We absolutely love Hank the Cowdog.
Jeannette
says:I loved the Encyclopedia Brown books when I was a kid! Another series my kids and I enjoy is The Farm Mystery Series from Castleberry Farms Press.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceThanks for the recommendation, Jeannette!
Laura Walton
says:I’m going to look for these at the library!
They sound like something my son would love. We are currently reading the Poppy series by Avi. We also like to read Geronimo Stilton books.
Robin E. at All About Learning Press
says: Customer ServiceThanks for the recommendations, Laura! I’ve not seen the Poppy series, but my kids LOVED Avi’s The End in the Beginning. We’ll have to check Poppy out too!
Hélène
says:I read these as a kid, my older kids read these, and now my younger kids read these and Nate the Great. Love ’em. There are some of each series on tape/cd too for kids who have difficulty learning to read.
Erica
says:My son loves Nate the Great books. Encyclopedia Brown will be a great series to keep him reading through the summer.
Dana Alvarado
says:My son has been looking for a new mystery series after finishing all of Geronimo Stilton. This would be great. Thank you.
Sylva
says:I’ll be checking these out – I heard of the series when I was a child. My son also has enjoyed the Ramona books.
Lauren
says:I forgot about these – but they would be a perfect read aloud book for my not yet reading 7 year old. Thanks!
Lisa A
says:My daughter has been using AAS and AAR for 2 years now and she has improved so much that she is now asking to read chapter books! She likes adventures and mysteries so I think she will love this series, the checklist is a great idea.