When I think of Encyclopedia Brown it's the books with these painted covers

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jessek@reddit

I loved that hyper realistic illustration style that was on a bunch of kids book covers in the 80s. I remember The Indian in The Cupboard and T.A.C.K. Into Danger had similar cover art, maybe the same artist.

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Lughaidh_@reddit

Who’s that Brown?

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WaffleRun@reddit

I believe Richard A. Williams is the cover artist for these Bantam-Skylark Encyclopedia Brown novels from the 80s-90s.

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Ambitious-Welder-159@reddit (OP)

Thanks! I tried googling him up but I only get the animator Richard Williams who worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit!

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Cautious_Meat_7442@reddit

Oh, memory unlcoked! These books made me feel so dumb. One of the solutions was about some girl must’ve lied about clipping her nails because “No one clips their nails AFTER a bath!” It was the way the answers were insane but presented as “No sh*t, Sherlock” solutions.

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Ok-Name1312@reddit

I learned that bookkeeper is the only English word with three sets of double letters next to each other.

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Furrymcfurface@reddit

I always wondered if my photographic memory comes from trying to think like he did

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tgbarbie@reddit

That was Cam Jansen; Cam short for camera.

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mrmadchef@reddit

Another series I devoured as a kid

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JohnnyWix@reddit

I learned that squirrels don’t back down a tree when they see a trumpet, and a hard boiled egg spins better than a raw one. I have used the second one before to test random fridge eggs.

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PlagueDrWily@reddit

I had #10, it’s how I learned about palindromes.

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Insomniac_80@reddit

Keep the covers, keep them set during the time when they were first published!

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tgbarbie@reddit

Yes! So then no contemporary kids want to read them at all! (Sorry, I’m a librarian, a sarcastic one at that). Covers change all the time, it’s the nature of the beast. You want things to feel fresh. Kids will not check out a book that looks like this.

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Traditional_Isopod80@reddit

Yes!

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Into-the-stream@reddit

I didn’t read these, but I read a lot of books with the same style of painted covers and spent hours looking at them. This brought back all the feels

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minmocatfood@reddit

I used to eat these up even though I couldn’t solve any to save my life.

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VVrayth@reddit

Man, I read all of these when I was in elementary school. I watched the extremely short-lived HBO series, too.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit

The solutions made no sense.

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rwa2@reddit

Yeah, not sure what to do with the stuff he solved with his eidetic memory. Maybe now that we all have smartphones we can do that too?

Also the time he identified someone lying about being from 'frisco because no one from San Francisco would call themselves that. Kid was wise beyond his years.

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MikeZenberthy@reddit

I’m more of a “Three Investigators” guy.

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rwa2@reddit

Is that like, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew crossover episode?

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krupta13@reddit

the three investigators and the hardy boys!

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Glad-Lobster-220@reddit

Same. Jupiter Jones all the way.

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krupta13@reddit

peanut butter on banana!

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SlackerDS5@reddit

Not me, I think of the TV show.

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Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit

I remember one of these, the big twist to the whole thing when he caught the guy was that he was standing by some stairs and he said something was just an arrow flight away, and i think we the reader were supposed to get that since he was by stairs, he meant "a narrow flight away" and I remember thinking that reading was the wrong media for a verbal clue like that and felt very cheated. Otherwise, I loved this series, and yeah, this is the correct artwork

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dibbledabblescrabble@reddit

I loved these books. Holy jeez, I read a lot of them.

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joshhupp@reddit

I treat every one I could. I never solved a single case though so I knew I would never be a good detective

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littlesisterofthesun@reddit

It is how I know that bicarbonate soda is another name for baking soda.

The waitress at a diner didn't know that when talking to the sheriff. She was the Killer.

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evetsabucs@reddit

Spoiler alert!

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originalbrowncoat@reddit

I miss the days when bullies were easily identifiable by their last name and the fact that they wore crowns all the time.

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_WeSellBlankets_@reddit

These reminded me of Jughead from the Archie comic books. He wasn't a bully.

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Cael_NaMaor@reddit

& people thought it was appropriate to stand up to them...

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MyDearDoctor@reddit

Bugs Meany was such a great name.

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Cael_NaMaor@reddit

Never even heard of this one...

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NoInvestment3870@reddit

I fondly remember the books and then started to vaguely recall a made for tv movie/series, doubted the existence but still had to check, turns out I was right https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096576/

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Undercover_Dave@reddit

Are they different now?

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Ambitious-Welder-159@reddit (OP)

The covers are.

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Funkopedia@reddit

I hate this kid and his inductive reasoning based on not quite true trivia. Also the one minute mysteries series that Donald Sobel also wrote which had equally nonsense solutions, often involving Pullman Porters.

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TaurusOH@reddit

I always loved the Encyclopedia Brown books. I think I still have a couple of mine in a box somewhere.