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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, but read the others first
Review: First, I loved the Great Brain series. My 11 year old son just got done reading the first seven. We agree that the first was the weakest, and the rest were amazing. His favorite is Me and My Little Brain, while mine is The Grear Brain at the Academy.
I read the books in the 70's. I looked on Amazon.com for the books for my son and found this one. I bought, read it, and loved it. It was like meeting a best friend that you haven't seen for years, and starting right where you left off.
With that said, this book is not as good as the rest. It's a bit like saying Eric Clapton is not as good as Jimi Hendrix. Clapton is still better than 99.9% of the rest of the guitarist. And that's how you should look at this book. It's not quite as good as the original seven, but it's still great.
If you're thinking of buying this, read the rest of the series first. Then buy this one and enjoy it. If you read the series when you where young, then buy this book. You will love it.
Rating:
Summary: LIKE THE WONDER YEARS....
Review: I am now 33 years old and still love the Great Brain series. I read them as a child and bought the paperback set then. I still have it.......covers off, torn pages and raggedy books overall, but I still love them. The Great Brain series is great for kids..........it teaches them a lot about what life was like back then with no t.v or computers. It is also a great series for adults. Takes you back to a childhood like the Wonder Years series. You will love it. Makes a great gift. The person you gift it to will love you for it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable story
Review: I read all of the Great Brain books as a child, and enjoyed them thoroughly. I was thrilled to discover this new (to me) volume out. It does follow the same formula as the other books, with chapters where Tom's money loving heart swindles the kids out of their money, as well as chapters where his Great Brain saves the day. The characters are all there, too: J. D., Sweyn, Frankie, Parley, Basil, Danny, and the other kids in the town, as well as Mamma, Papa, and a new influence on Tom's Great Brain: a girl! There's nothing new here, as the anecdotes are like those in the other books. I enjoyed best the chapters with the Paiute tribe and the fishing expedition, as it reminds me that life on one hand may not be the same, but maybe on the other hand it is. If you enjoy the Great Brain books, and would like some new stories, pick this book up. If you've never read the Great Brain before, go back and read them in order, or try a few of the paperback editions first.
Rating: 
Summary: So-so entry into the Great Brain series...
Review: I would only give this 2.5 stars out of 5. As someone who grew up with the Great Brain series in the '70s I was quite pleased to hear about this "lost" book surfacing a few years ago. These were my favorite books when I was a kid and I kept them for many years afterwards. Imagine my disappointment when I read the introduction by the "editor." If one were to believe what she writes here, she is the one who should be commended for the "Great Brain" series, not Fitzgerald.
Oh, please.
Her insulting forward aside, readers should know that this book was assembled (after his death) from Fitzgerald's notes and we will never know for sure if he intended for it to be published or not. It's a fair book, but it doesn't have nearly the spark of the original works, all of which I would highly recommend over this, any day of the week.
Rating:
Summary: Get the series, they are great, classic children's books
Review: John Dennis Fitzgerald intended to chronicle his youth in Utah for adults, not children. His publisher thought otherwise and the result are these gems. I don't even call them children's lit gems because I find them just as enjoyable as an adult. Before I go on, you should know that Fitzgerald wrote one book about his youth that is for adults, called "Papa Married a Mormon". It is one of the most amazing books on the American west that I have ever read. Sadly, it is out of print, and you may, like me, have to pay an exorbitant sum to get a copy. Trust me, save up and do it. Now back to this book. Every single Great Brain book in the series is pure gold, and the entire set can be had cheaply, so I say buy them all at once. I "put my money where my mouth is" as Tom the Great Brain would say, and bought the lot.
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