Recently, I was at my parent's house going through old books and magazines from my youth and came across a few well-read and tattered Encyclopedia Brown books. I instantly remembered how much fun it was reading these as a kid. I took all I could find for my 10 and 8 year-old son and daughter. You guessed it, shortly after I'm here on Amazon looking for more!I'll admit, my kids aren't crazy about reading, but they enjoy reading these. They are perfect for my 10 year-old, but my 8 year-old struggles a little bit with them--that's where Dad swoops in and saves the day and helps explain things and helps with some of the bigger words. If you're on here looking for books for your kids, then you've undoubtedly heard the saying "Learning to read and reading to learn". These books provide a great opportunity for your child to increase their reading ability, but also requires them to read and think critically to help solve the mystery. I'm no readin' teacher, but I think these books are a fantastic way to help teach your kids real-world problem solving skills.If you are unfamiliar with these stories, they follow the young Leroy (Encyclopedia) Brown as he runs a detective agency (all mysteries solved for 25 cents!) solving crimes in his town where his father is chief of police. Each story lays out facts and clues and leaves it up to the reader to solve the mystery (don't worry, answers are in the back of the book).The stories are short, entertaining, and informative. Every youngster should have these on their bookshelf.