The literary world has had another great author taken from it this
year. Donald
J. Sobol, better known to us children who were just a little bit nerdy, the
author who brought us Encyclopedia Brown passed away on July 16th at the age of
87. He did not get as much attention as the others who have passed on this year,
but in my heart, he is worth mentioning. When I was a little girl I always
wanted to read those sleuth novels my grandparents were reading. My grandmother
would tell me “They are not really for little girls!” One day she took me to
this very library and I discovered “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.” I was
instantly hooked the moment I opened those pages and dove right in. When we
went back to the library I checked out about 7 more Encyclopedia Brown books,
each of which I torn in to as fast as I could! I grew to really love Encyclopedia
Brown and his sometimes partner/ sometimes bodyguard, Sally Kimball. They were
my childhood Nick and Nora Charles. Through Sobol’s characters I grew up
wanting to be a sleuth myself. It was the spring board to my love of Dashiell
Hammett, Agatha Christie, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I owe a great big part of
my childhood to Mr. Sobol as I think many of us do. He will be greatly missed and
will live on through the novels he gave us.
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