Friday, August 1, 2014

Google Brown - Boy Detective (Google Brown Mysteries #1)

Taylor, G.F. (2014). Google Brown - boy detective. Self-Published. eBook.

Children's / Mystery
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads


UPDATED REVIEW! Forget encyclopedias! There's Google! This book of ten short see-if-you-can-solve-it mysteries is a great update to (and inspired by) the old favorite, Encyclopedia Brown stories.

Young Geoffrey Brown, nicknamed Google, is self-educated by the internet (using only good sources, of course) and sharp as a tack. When problems pop-up around school, it's almost always the bully Tom Hooligan to blame, which is no surprise, but where's the proof?

Elementary kids (I'd recommend ages 8-10) will enjoy reading these very short stories, each one ending with a question to be answered. Kids think it over (or discuss -- I can see this being a great read-aloud by a teacher or librarian),then turn the page to see how Google solved the mystery. My favorites were "Google Takes the Gold," and "The Case of the High Heel." These stories will appeal especially to the reluctant reader, as it's very easy to read just one or two at a time and set the book aside.

UPDATE: When I first read the book, I had taken issue with a repeated punctuation error, which I brought to the author's attention. I am happy to report that Mr. Taylor has since done a full re-editing of his book and published it both in eBook and print format. I must again give major kudos to Garry Taylor for being appreciative of my constructive criticism and responsive. He told me that he wants it to be correct and said he wants it "to be a book my grandson can be proud of some day." **FEEL GOODS ABOUNDING**

Thank you to Garry Taylor for providing me a free eBook copy of this book in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give! 





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Garry Taylor was born and raised in Kentucky. Growing up, he enjoyed riding his bike, reading comic books and mystery detective stories, playing with computers, and making art. He dreamed of visiting some of the big cities and far away places that he had read about. When he grew up, he got a job as a computer programmer, took up pottery making as a hobby, and read lots of mystery stories. After living in big cities and visiting far away places, he decided that there was no place he'd rather be than in Kentucky, where he lives today, still making pottery, writing computer programs, reading mysteries (and occasionally reading comic books as well).