The Mad Scientists' Club (Scholastic Books #TX801)

There have been plenty of science-based children's stories written over the years, but Bertrand R. Brinley's Mad Scientists' Club stories are something special. A combination of excellent true-to-life writing, simple yet sound science (with a single exception), and a gently wicked sense of fun have produced a marvelous collection of stories that seem as clever and fresh as when they came out more than forty years ago. The secret? The fact that the Mad Scientists of Mammoth Falls use science not for building great inventions or solving great mysteries, but primarily for playing clever pranks on the well deserving. In "The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake", Dinky Poore makes up a story about seeing a sea monster in order to explain being late for dinner. His fellow club members decide to build a sea monster. Hi-jinks ensue. In "Night Rescue" the boys make clever use of simple scientific principles in order to rescue a downed Air Force pilot. In "The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls" the boys liven up Mammoth Falls' Founder's Day celebration with a flying man. In "The Big Egg" the boys try to hatch a fossil dinosaur egg. (!) It gets an A for story and an F for science. In "The Secret of the Old Cannon" the boys use a combination of cutting edge science (for 1963) and simple basics to solve an unsolved bank robbery (and embarrass a couple of sneaks trying to take credit for their work). In "The Great Gas Bag Race" the boys come up with a truly brilliant concept for winning a balloon race. In "The Voice in the Chimney" the boys hilariously haunt a house. I find it difficult to put into words just how much fun these stories are. I enjoyed them as a boy; I enjoyed them as a man; I'll read them to my children; and I'm sure that they will pass them on to their children. Mr. Brinley wrote three more books about the Mad Scientists' Club: The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club, The Big Kerplop!: The Original Adventure of the Mad Scientists' Club, and The Big Chunk of Ice: The Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists' Club, all of them great, but this, the first one is IMHO the best. Note: the Purple House 40th anniversary reprint of The Mad Scientists' Club is worth picking up even if you own an older edition because the text is based on the original manuscripts, restoring a number of passages that had been cut for space reasons when they were first published in Boys' Life. It also includes an introduction written by Bertrand's son Sheridan and a chronological listing of the stories so you can read them in the order they were written (the order of the stories in the book was not changed). Reading them chronologically clears up some confusion over places, geographical references, and characters, though according to internal references "The Big Egg" takes place before "The Secret of the Old Cannon".

Not only boys will enjoy this wonderful collection of stories. I'm a girl & this was one of my favorite books growing up. The adventures are much better than Nancy Drew or those... *opinion* inane 'babysitter' books. I highly recommend this book & am currently purchasing my second copy in addition to putting the rest of the mad scientist books on my wish list. These books would make great presents for any child.

Like many of the other reviewers of this book, I read it repeatedly as a boy. I identified with the characters. I loved the way they used their intelligence and knowledge of science to get themselves in and out of mischief, and sometimes to help people. And let's not forget to mention Brinley's easy reading style and Geer's terrific illustrations. But one lesson I took away from this book (and its sequel) was that it was perfectly fine to be a skinny geek who was interested in science. These guys solved all kinds of real life problems without the benefit of brawn, large amounts of money, or even magic (a la Harry Potter).

I first read this book some twenty years ago--and I read it at least twenty times. In fact, after my mother purged my collection of children's books while I was away at college, I so missed this particular book that I looked for years before I found a used copy. I am ecstatic to see it back in print.The Mad Scientist's Club has all the elements that make for a fast-paced, engrossing book: an ensemble cast of unique and humorous characters, a rival club of bigger but less creative scientists, adults who aid as well as thwart the Mad Scientists' projects/practical jokes, and, of course, a great secret hide-out and lots of clandestine meetings in a booby-trapped clubhouse. The cast of characters is comprised of a variety of personalities that are familiar yet creatively re-imagined: the geeky science nerd, the pip-squeak tag-along, the bologna sandwich toting goof, and the narrator-as-everyman. What makes these characters particularly likeable is that, along with their irrepressible hijinks and constant smart-aleck attitudes is a real respect and fondness for each other and their tremendous interest in the power of knowledge (and accidents) when used for good...and entertainment. Adults as well as kids will enjoy this book--a gang of Encyclopedia Browns with better senses of humor, more ingenuity, and less of a holier-than-thou attitude: it doesn't get much better than this.