Free Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case by Donald Sobol

DUTTON CHILDREN’S BOOKS
A division of Penguin Young Readers Group
    Published by the Penguin Group
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    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    Text copyright © 2007 by Donald J. Sobol
Illustrations copyright © 2007 by James Bernardin
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
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    Published in the United States by Dutton Children’s Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
www.penguin.com /youngreaders
    Designed by Jason Henry
    ISBN: 978-1-1012-0064-3

For Joe Cirulli

The Case of the Forgetful Jewel Thief
    To most people, Idaville looked like many seaside towns. It had four banks, three movie theaters, and two delicatessens. It had churches and synagogues and lovely white beaches.
    But Idaville only looked like other seaside towns.
    For more than a year, no grown-up or child in Idaville had gotten away with breaking the law. Police officers across the nation wondered how Idaville did it. What was the secret?
    Only three people knew the answer to that question, and they weren’t telling.
    All three lived in a red brick house at 13 Rover Avenue—Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown, and their only child, ten-year-old Encyclopedia, America’s best crime-buster.
    Mr. Brown was Idaville’s chief of police. He was honest, brave, and smart. Whenever he had a case that seemed impossible to solve, he always did the same thing. He went home to dinner. Encyclopedia usually would solve the case with just one question. Usually before dessert.
    Police chiefs across America believed that Mr. Brown was the best police chief in the world. Chief Brown was proud of his record and proud of his officers. But he had to keep his pride in Encyclopedia a secret. Who would believe that a fifth-grader was the real mastermind behind Idaville’s war on crime?
    So he said nothing.
    Encyclopedia never bragged about the help he gave to his father. He didn’t want to seem different from other fifth-graders.
    But he was stuck with his nickname.
    Only his parents and teachers called him by his real name, Leroy. Everyone else in Idaville called him Encyclopedia.
    An encyclopedia is a book or set of books filled with all kinds of facts from A to Z . Encyclopedia had read more