on a children's book kick, Liked this book as a child and enjoyed as an adult, The little incidents are funny yet it's frustrating to see the "Great Brain" manipulate the situations into his favor.
The "Great Brain" probably turned out to be very rich and was already conniving, A good, fun read. I LOVED this series as a child and rereading it with my girls was just as fun as I hoped.
Hilarious!
Note: Some scenes would be best with parent conversations and input for historical context and understanding.
. . but even in those scenes there is little truly dark malice but a tone of levity and light and an understanding that all will work out.
A great way for children to have conversations about topics that are current issues, What a delightful, feel good book! So much to learn from, Each story kept us attentive and engaged, It's already a classic to my older kids, I'm glad to say it will be for me too,: I think I will always love this book no matter how many times I read it, Full review here: sitelink sunlitpages. com/th
: I'm still chuckling over some of T, D. 's antics. The two stories I really remembered from my first reading were the mumps and the nearsuicide, and I can see why they stuck with me so vividly.
. . after reading it again, they're still the best ones, Parents: proceed with caution. When I reread this book as an adult I discovered that there is a chapter about an attempted suicide.
It is supposed to funny and it is, but if you have a vulnerable/sensitive child you may want to preview this chapter.
My modern day sensitivities got in the way again when, in the last chapter of this book I read out loud to my boys, I started reading about peg leg Andy who wanted to commit suicide because he was plumb useless.
Our dear narrator, little J, D. was just the type of pal to help him out too, I continued to read about the different ideas the boys came up with to do in Andy, and tried to figure out what I could make up to pretend the story was over and get out of reading the lastor so pages of the book.
I talked to my boys about what would happen if JD and Andy succeeded and the consequences that JD would have to live with, and how these boys were not thinking things through and decided to keep reading.
I am glad I did because the last few pages of this book were the best ones yet.
Overall, my boys loved this book and it made a fun read aloud, The story of a boy growing up with his two older brothers, one who had a knack for solving problems with his Great Brain.
Set in a time when boys had lots of chores, played games with nothing more than sticks, rocks and an old can, respected their elders, explored old caves, got measles and the mumps, could lose a leg from stepping on a rusty nail and settled disputes with a fist fight or wrestle.
I bought this one for my nephews out of nostalgia the other day, remembering having liked it as a kid.
And so I thought I ought to reread it myself, It's not often one reads fiction set inth century Utah, and this is an interesting perspective from the FitzgeraldsSweyn, Tom and Johnthree Catholic boys who grew up circain Utah's Dixie, in the small fictionalized Mormon town of Adenville the author in fact was born and raised in Carbon County.
What I did not remember was the narcissism of Tom Fitzgerald, the socalled "Great Brain," whose great brain frequently is credited both by himself and others as the source of invaluable problem solving and heroics at home, school and throughout the town.
Tom devises ways to swindle local kids of their pennies, everything from charging commission for watching the installation of the town's first ever water closet in his home, to extracting silver dollars from a hunter in the neighborhood for each puppy bred of his brother John's pet dog, Brownie.
Although John sometimes sees through Tom's antics, his brother always manages to smoothly manipulate allegiances and secure the oaths of others to preserve his position.
The shenanigans seem harmless enough, except maybe when they rise to the level of framing the new school teacher, Mr.
Standish, as a secret lush and having him terminated by the school board, or else John's trying to help out friend Andy Anderson to commit suicide for "being plumb useless" due to his peg leg.
The storytelling is fun, and the tales are probably a fair depiction of
a young boy's point of view growing up in the rugged west, centering on such concepts as honor and respect perhaps more common in that period of time.
This is an enjoyable read and still holds its appeal after all these years, What The FiveYearOld Thought: "I can't explain why I liked it except that JD is telling the story.
Tom is the one with the Great Brain and he rescued a few guys, "
What Mommyo thought: My husband is in the process of reading this to ourYO.
Both are really enjoying it true confessions my husband read this as a child, so his enjoyment may be partly nostalgia.
When they got to the bit about making homemade ice cream, TheYO said: “Daddyo, I want to jump into the book right that second.
”
You should definitely try this one at your house, :
Update Potential Spoiler Alert amp Parental Warning:
Last night we got to the part where one of the characters dies.
It's a very tough chapter, My husband who was reading it, skimmed over it, because The FiveYearOld wasn't in a good place to deal with the sadness or the reasons for the death she was having a tough night already.
I mention it because you may want to read this book before sharing it with your children, so that you'll be prepared for the questions they'll have about some of the tough subjects it raises.
Also, the attitudes toward Native Americans are not, shall we say, in line with current thinking.
You'll want to be prepared to deal with questions stemming from that or to simply address it head on while your child is reading this book.
This is another one I remember from the past, I remember liking it as a kid, Read again just for nostalgia's sake, Not sure it holds up, Tom, the "Great Brain" was really just a little shyster, figuring out ways to turn a profit on everything he did even those things he did as good deeds.
Some of my favorite books:
Imagine Tom Sawyer meets Sherlock Holmes, Makes my imagination explode and makes me want to muck about a small town in Utah and run in some caves.
When my kids were very, very little, their favorite thing in this life was a television show called Caillou.
If you have not seen Caillou, count yourself fortunate, If you have, you know what I am talking about, It is, quite simply, horrible in every way, The Caillou character is a horrible role model for a fouryearoldselfish, annoying, and whinyand his parents who I am reliably informed are called Doris and Boris, ay ay ay are supine, weakwilled Canadian morons who never do anything to discipline Caillou.
So when I was watching Caillou, with my children, I would always stop the narrative and say, "What is Caillou doing Is he whining Do we whine like Caillou" This, of course, predictably infuriated them, but I was right to do it and do not apologize.
THE GREAT BRAIN is far superior to Caillou, , as all things are, but in reading it to myYOs, I continually had to stop and ask them, "What is the Great Brain doing Is that right Is it smart Do we do what the Great Brain does"
And I kept doing that, up to a point, and then I had to stop, and I almost stopped reading it altogether.
THE GREAT BRAIN is a relic, of course, It is a relic of both its time and place turn of the century rural Utah and the time and the place it was written late's early's.
When I read THE GREAT BRAIN books, the constant fighting among the children was something that wasn't too far removed from my own childhood I was told that it was permissible and honorable to stand up for myself by punching bullies in the nose, and did so a couple of times.
But inThat's not the antibullying message that we have now, You can argue whether its the antibullying message that we ought to have, but I would not have that argument at too hard of a decibel level.
THE GREAT BRAIN certainly has its period charms, I enjoyed explaining to myYOs about what people did before indoor plumbing, and refrigerators, and iPads.
A major subtext of THE GREAT BRAIN is "what people did before there was modern entertainment," and it's great to have the explanations of how kickthecan worked, and what Indian wrestling is.
In the book it's referred to as "Indian squaw wrestling," which is not a word we use in our house, as well as "Jackass Leapfrog," also.
But there were three things that I left out when I read it, and I think that most parents would leave this out for younger kids:
.
I left out the entire last part of the story about how the Great Brain introduces an immigrant child to America, because there was just so much fighting.
It's not just the fighting, but the way that the fighting is normalized and applauded by all the characters, including the parents.
The Great Brain humiliates the immigrant child when he won't participate in fights, and it's a cruel thing to do, and the book treats that as necessary, when it isn't.
. I left out the entire chapter where the Jewish peddler who is encouraged by the Great Brain's father to open a store in the tiny rural community starves himself to death because his business is failing.
. I left out the entire part about the narrator tries to help the boy who lost part of his leg try to commit suicide.
I am not saying that this is a bad book, or that it's inappropriate, but I couldn't tell big huge parts of it to my kids.
I remember liking this book from my childhood, and I'm amazed about how much the world has changed since then.
Or maybe I've changed. This originally appeared at sitelinkThe Irresponsible Reader,
Growing up, these stories about a preteen con artist in lateth Century Utah were among my favorites.
I remember stumbling on a box set at a Yard Sale after I'd read them from the Library a couple of times and just about wore out the set reading and rereading them.
Even then, I remember that I had problems with some of the characters, and recall that my favorite was always the narrator, John D.
, not the titular Great Brain himself, Tom D, Aboutyears ago, I read the series to my kids, and enjoyed it possibly more than they did, but not as much as I remembered.
Still, when I saw it listed as a new addition to my library's catalog, I took a second glance and when I saw that Ron McLarty did the narration, I had to try it.
This book is a series of episodes from over a year or so in the life of three brothers, Sweyn D.
, Tom D. and John D. Fitzgerald. Sweyn is around a little bit as the more mature eldest brother, John's the youngestor, I believe and Tom isand the star.
He's Greedy, conniving, and ambitious and his ego is bigger than the rest of his attributes combined.
They live in a small, largely LDS, town in Utah during the last decade of thes.
The episodes feature different ways in which Tom's Great Brain works to make him money and/or notoriety in the community, especially with the kids.
Some of these antics are silly, some are serious, Almost all of them are profitable for Tom, The strength of the stories is the humanity of the rest of the community the traveling Jewish merchant, the local farmers, the Greek immigrant family, for starters.
The weakness comes from the very laissezfaire approach to parenting the Fitzgeralds take allowing Tom D.
to pretty much get away with everything he wants,
There is some charm, some heart, throughout even from Tom, That part appeals to me, the egodriven greedy exploits of the Great Brain don't, John's narration occasionally will critique Tom's motives, but mostly John's a little brother thinking his big brother is fantastic no matter what.
I know John becomes more disillusioned later, but for now, it was annoying, I want better for him,
How's the narration you ask Honestly, the chance to listen to Ron McLarty narrate was half the reason I had for grabbing this.
McLarty will always be Sgt, Frank Belson to me, despite the many other things he's accomplished in life, He did a fine job, at times a great job, Something about him reading the contractionless dialogue bugged the tar out of me, George Guidal can make it work when he reads Henry Standing Bear although it helps that no one else does it.
McLarty can't make it work, probably because despite the fact that slang is used, time appropriate language but not a contraction from anyone I don't lay the fault at McLarty's feet, it's just a prominent feature.
I still recommend the books and enjoyed them, It's just a tempered enjoyment, I'll probably keep chipping away at the series over the next few months waiting to see John's disillusionment grow, and the brothers develop a conscience.
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Catch The Great Brain (Great Brain, #1) Created By John D. Fitzgerald File Ebook
John D. Fitzgerald