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.I remembered these from my childhood, purchased to read to my son... nope. Very dated, don't make a lot of sense anymore.I bought this pack for my 7 year old daughter. I remember going to the school library as a child and checking out book after book of Encycopedia Brown. I can recall having to read books from the library as a child and these were my favorite. These books contain multiple short stories that are easy to read and super fun.In short, they are brief child detective stories, usually around 6 to 8 pages each. Follows kids in the neighborhood asking young Encyclopedia Brown (Boy Detective) for help solving kid mysteries. The stories are short so my daughter can read them and stay focused without her mind wondering to other things. She gets to play detective and try and figure out the mystery as the story unfolds. As each story ends, the reader gets to think of how Enclycopedia Brown will solve the mystery before turning to the back of the book for the answer. This keeps my child engaged as she reads as she loves to see if she can solve each mystery.The books are short and easy to read. The stories go quick. These books seem to be a perfect length for young readers to actually enjoy reading without getting bored. I loved them. My daughter loves them. Hopefully the fun she has will lead her to love longer books throughout life.I love these books from when I was a kid. I bought them to read with my son. Unfortunately times have changed quite a lot. Book four and I think book 3 has a lot of smoking in it. A bit too much for a 6-year-old. Good books but a little too outdated.These books got my second grader interested in reading again! I loved Encyclopedia Brown books when i was a child. My second grader has not enjoyed reading for the past year or so. It always seemed a chore (even though is advanced for his age and used to LOVE reading). When we would tell him to go read he would go pick out a picture book or young children's book. We were lucky if we could get him to read for 20 minutes at a time. Thankfully, all of that changed once I received these books. I was originally going to save them for Christmas, but decided to pull them out. He read a solid hour the first time he started reading these. He finished all 4 books in just 5 days. Encyclopedia Brown is his new favorite character and we've already borrowed the next 4 books from the library. His vocabulary has increased as well and he is always asking if i remember this particular story, or that secondary character. I'm so glad I was able to share my love of reading this books with him. It is so great seeing him want to read these books rather than playing with electronics or watching TV.My 10-year-old great-nephew is a reader and I do all I can to encourage it further. I saw these for a good price and ordered them to help pass the summer days when at this Auntie's home during the summer. He started the first book while here and begged to take it home with the promise of bringing it back. I caved... He called that night saying he had finished it. He would bring it to Little League the next night. He asked me to bring the second book so he might take it with him to read while on vacation with his family, which, of course, I did.All that to say that the books must have been pretty good if he wanted to take the next in the series to the beach with him! That's a good review!This book series is entertaining and good for enhancing students' critical thinking and problem solving skills. I would recommend it for students fourth grade or higher unless they are gifted and highly inquisitive. The book was written about 50 years ago, so it is somewhat dated in that sense; however, the skill content is appropriate for today's students.I like the encyclopedia brown series my mom bought so I can read while there is nothing to do. The story is very interesting with at least 10 mysteries inside it. The mysteries are separated from the answers so that you can do a bit of thinking yourself. There are four books in this set and they are a paperback series. The paperback is more sturdy than other books, which I like. I highly recommend these books.The Encyclopedia Brown series are still some of the best books for kids ever written. They stimulate the mind, educate and most importantly, are awesomely fun!By inviting the reader to decipher the mystery, it involves him/her much more than if it was just a typical mystery story and this box set is quite special because it includes four books for a reduced price.Now, just like some of the puzzles in Professor Layton and some of the mysteries in Case Closed, not all of the mysteries here always make sense and some are questionable. Still, for the most part, they are brilliantly designed and greatly stimulating.I grew up with these series and still find them a privilege to read so I would say, if you're not yet acquainted with the honorable Encyclopedia Brown (Leroy to his parents) yet, buy yourself this box set now. It has the first 4 books in the collection so it's the perfect place to start! :)Books from my childhood being thoroughly enjoyed by my son who loves putting his baseball cap on, closing his eyes and solving the case.These stories are very much like the two minute mysteries and are great fun to read so everyone can work aout the answerA great series of books with awesome crimes,characters and they even let you solve the crimes by yourself (answers at the back)perfect reading for boys especially 8-10 years