I read all of the Encyclopedia Brown books as a child and I bought them for my own children to read while they were growing up.
These books along with the Great Brain books are both series which have children as protagonists in the story. They are both series where the child star of the book is a genius; knowledge is valued and adults are in awe of them.
I think that books of this kind are still needed today, in a world where children read books like Goosebumps and Animorphs. I think that the world today has lost the ability to give children a real desire, of their own, to learn....a desire to be the smartest kid there is.
Although brains are valued, you do not see a lot of competition or jealousy either. It isn't about outdoing your neighbor or getting better grades than someone--a precursor to outdoing the Joneses... instead these books simply keep you riveted about what the child is going to discover or think up or do...and it leaves you wishing that you were like them!

I thought it was interesting upon re-reading this book that the author actually has to explain what an encyclopedia is to the reader.
It is hard to think back to a day before encyclopedias and yet we have moved even past that age to one where the encyclopedia is obsolete (the internet has taken it's place). ( )

10-year old Encyclopedia Brown solves all the mysteries in Idaville. This book contains several short mysteries (a few pages each) which are relatively simple to figure out, but entertaining for primary-school aged children to solve, with solutions at the back of the book. ( )