In fact, it was an eye-opening experience to revisit these books as an adult when I started passing them along to my own kids. usually comes out of the deal with the short end of the stick. That’s actually a fairly straight-forward money-making scheme for Tom-he’s always playing the angles and is not terribly concerned about ethics if there’s cash involved. The Great Brain), an entrepreneur extraordinaire. In the opening chapter, we meet Tom charging the other kids in town a penny a head to view his family’s new water closet, the first indoor toilet in Adenville.

tells us the adventures of his older brother, Tom (a.k.a. The books are narrated by J.D., the youngest boy in one of the few non-Mormon families in Adenville. J.D. If you happen to visit my hometown library this summer, you could go in the front door, pass the desk, take the first right into the children’s section and go all the way down past the right-hand shelves to the back wall. Third shelf up, about halfway in-that’s where you’ll find The Great Brain books. I checked them out so often that I’m fairly sure I could still find them blind-folded. These books, based loosely on Fitzgerald’s own childhood, chronicle life in the Mormon town of Adenville, Utah in the 1890s and-I’m not sure if I should admit this or not-I always loved them much more than those other more famous books involving little houses and prairies. Welcome to Summer Reading 2017! This summer we’re taking advantage of the long summer days to read our way through some of our favorite series for children and young people.

The great brain fitzgerald