History Literature / EncyclopediaBrown

* SuspiciouslyPrescientPlanning: One mystery has his father ask for help with a case of vandalism. The rudder of a boat was smashed just before a boat race was to take place. Suspicion falls on the rivals of the boat's owner, but Encyclopedia realizes that the boat's owner smashed the rudder himself. How? The owner's wife was to join him in the race, but she got her hair done before the race was postponed. She wouldn't have done that if the race were going ahead because the wind would have ruined her hairdo.

Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown is the son of the Chief of Police in [[EverytownAmerica Idaville]], who one day reveals an uncanny ability to crack cases using his deductive skills. [[OnceAnEpisode Once a book]] he helps his dad solve a serious case at the dinner table, and the rest of the time he runs a neighborhood detective agency to help the local kids with their own troubles. His eternal rival is [[MeaningfulName Bugs Meany]], a local bully with his own posse of troublemakers, the Tigers. Encyclopedia's friend (and bodyguard) is Sally Kimball, a CuteBruiser whom even Bugs fears. Another recurring enemy is Wilford Wiggins, a high school dropout who is constantly trying to con the neighborhood kids into buying bogus products or merchandise. Encyclopedia, Sally, and [[EvenEvilHasStandards Bugs]] all agree that they hate him.

The last book of the series was posthumously published in October, 2012, three months after Sobol's death.

* Book 4, Chapter 8 ("The Case of The Blueberry Pies"): Encyclopedia is watching an pie eating contest combined with a foot race. When one of the Thompsons twins is declared the winner, he instantly knew they cheated and swapped places when the twin showed off a beautiful clean smile. Anyone who had scarfed down two blueberry pies would've had their teeth stained.

* Book 1, Chapter 7 ("The Case of the Happy Nephew"): A ex-convict is accused of robbing a bake shop, but he claims he was driving all day. Encyclopedia realizes he's wrong when he sees the convict's barefoot nephew happily playing on the hood of his car: if he had been driving all day, the hood would've been hot and the nephew would be crying in pain.

** Book 4, Chapter 8 ("The Case of the Blueberry Pies"): Encyclopedia realizes one of the competitors is cheating when they show off perfectly white teeth despite eating two blueberry pies.

** Book 7, Chapter 10 ("The Case of the Foot Warmer"): A young inventor named Melvin is accused of smuggling two BB rifles out of a toy shop, but the kid claims he was just wearing his new invention at the time. Encyclopedia realizes the inventor is lying when the toy shop owner remembers Melvin bent down to pick up a baby: Melvin's invention prevented him from bending down, so he couldn't be wearing the foot warmer at the time.

* BrokenGlassPenalty: Book 12, Chapter 8 ("The Case of the Broken Window") has some kids breaking a window from the inside and accidentally throwing the ball out the window. To avoid getting in trouble they put a rock on the floor in the room and told their mother that someone had thrown the rock in, that's how the window got broken. The mother figures out that if the rock had been thrown in there would be glass in the room -- but there wasn't, only glass on the ground outside.

** Book 15, Chapter 10 ("The Case of the Marathon Runner"): A case had a kid that finished last in a race correctly identify a song being played at a theater along the race route as "The Eyes of Texas" (The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_Texas University of Texas one]]) rather than the original tune it was adapted from, "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "proving" she stopped to ensure that she would finish last. Even assuming it was a lyricless version (which would be a dead giveaway), given it's the University's ''school song'' anyone who knows "The Eyes of Texas" is likely a graduate or a fan of their sports team in the first place, and the song is only ''a minute long'' anyway.

Encyclopedia Brown is the KidDetective hero of a series of children's stories written by Donald Sobol. He uses his intelligence and formidable memory for trivial facts to solve a wide variety of mysteries. The Encyclopedia Brown stories are essentially a kids' version of Sobol's earlier series ''Literature/TwoMinuteMysteries'' featuring the police detective Dr. Haledjian. A number of Brown cases are directly taken from ''Two Minute Mysteries'', albeit with the murders solved by Haledjian being (mostly) replaced with [[LighterAndSofter more humble crimes]] like bicycle theft. Like ''Two Minute Mysteries'', most Encyclopedia Brown stories revolve around our detective [[ConvictionByContradiction spotting an inconsistency or impossibility in the guilty party's alibi]].

* BrilliantButLazy: Wilford Wiggins is imaginative enough to come with all sorts of tall tales that're believable enough to nearly con the children of Idaville. In a few stories, Encyclopedia and Sally comment that Wilford is actually a rather talented artist. In Book 15 1/2, Chapter 3 ("The Case of the Fourth of July Artist"), Wilford creates a fake painting of the Liberty Bell that took weeks to perfect. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, it is portrayed unambiguously negatively. Instead of using his talents legitimately [[CutLexLuthorACheck as an artist or a fiction writer, Wilford squanders them on get-rich-quick schemes. He passes his works off as moneymaking schemes or historical relics instead of letting them stand on their own merits]].

* BrilliantButLazy: Wilford Wiggins is imaginative enough to come with all sorts of tall tales that're believable enough to nearly con the children of Idaville. In a few stories, Encyclopedia and Sally comment that Wilford is actually a rather talented artist. In Book 15 1/2, Chapter 3 ("The Case of the Fourth of July Artist"), Wilford creates a fake painting of the Liberty Bell that took weeks to perfect. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, it is portrayed unambiguously negatively. Rather than using his talents legitimately, [[CutLexLuthorACheck Wilford instead squanders them on get-rich-quick schemes. Instead of letting his work stand on its own merits as an artist or a fiction writer, he passes them off as some moneymaking opportunity or historical relic]].

* DoesNotLikeShoes: One recurring character is Charlie Stewart, a boy who collects animal teeth, who usually walks around barefoot in the hopes of finding new specimens under his feet.

** Book 1, Chapter 9 ("The Case of the Missing Roller Skates"): Combining with "INeverSaidItWasPoison", Encyclopedia is at the dentist's and has his roller skates stolen. The perp [[INeverSaidItWasPoison manages to identify himself]] because he never even heard of him (Dr. Vivian Wilson) until Brown mentioned him, and he wasn't at the dentist's because "I had a sprained wrist, not a toothache". Because he couldn't have found out that Vivian was a dentist through other means (such as being close enough to notice that this is a dentist's office), or simply assumed "Vivian" was male since Vivian is a gender-neutral name. In fact, "Vivian" is only thought of as being a feminine name since the 40s-50s. Thus, someone old enough to be a dentist at the time the book was written (1963) has can logically assume a "Dr. Vivian Wilson" is male.

* BrilliantButLazy: Wilford Wiggins is imaginative enough to come with all sorts of tall tales that're believable enough to nearly con the children of Idaville. In a few stories, Encyclopedia and Sally comment that Wilford is actually a rather talented artist. In Book 15 1/2, Chapter 3 ("The Case of the Fourth of July Artist"), Wilford creates a fake painting of the Liberty Bell that took weeks to perfect. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, it is portrayed unambiguously negatively. Rather than using his talents legitimately, [[CutLexLuthorACheck Wilford instead squanders them on get-rich-quick schemes. Instead of letting his work stand on its own merits as an artist or a fiction writer, he passes them off as some moneymaking opportunity or histircal relic]].
%%* BrokenGlassPenalty: Book ?, Chapter ? ("The Case of the ") has some kids breaking a window from the inside and accidentally throwing the ball out the window. To avoid getting in trouble they put a rock on the floor in the room and told their mother that someone had thrown the rock in, that's how the window got broken. The mother figures out that if the rock had been thrown in there would be glass in the room -- but there wasn't, only glass on the ground outside.

** Book 1, Chapter 9 ("The Case of the Missing Roller Skates"): Combining with "INeverSaidItWasPoison", Encyclopedia is at the dentist's and has his roller skates stolen. The perp [[INeverSaidItWasPoison manages to identify himself]] because he never even heard of him (Dr. Vivian Wilson) until Brown mentioned him, and he wasn't at the dentist's because "I had a sprained wrist, not a toothache". Because he couldn't have found out that Vivian was a dentist through other means (such as being close enough to notice that this is a dentist's office), or simply assumed "Vivian" was male since Vivian is a gender-neutral name. (In fact, it's only been seen as a feminine name [[NewerThanTheyThink Since around the 40s or 50s]].)

* ExcitedShowTitle: Book 15 1/2, ''Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake!''

* BrilliantButLazy: Well, not exactly "brilliant," but in a few stories, Encyclopedia and Sally comment that Wilford Wiggins, compulsive huckster, is actually a rather talented artist, as shown in Book 15 1/2, Chapter 3 ("The Case of the Fourth of July Artist"), when he creates a fake painting of the Liberty Bell that took weeks to perfect. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, it is portrayed unambiguously negatively. Rather than using his talents legitimately, [[CutLexLuthorACheck Wilford instead squanders them on get-rich-quick schemes by trying to pass his work off as some historical relic or other valuable instead of letting them stand on their own merits]].

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Sally. She's the toughest and most athletic girl in town and can punch out anybody. But she's also got a passion for the arts as evidenced by her crush on Pablo and isn't against wearing skirts. Certain mysteries also give her a chance to solve the case because she has knowledge of feminine things Enclyopeda wouldn't have.

* OnlySaneMan: Encyclopedia, Sally, and (amazingly) Bugs are usually the only people who doubt Wilford Wiggins whenever he does one of his cons.