“Henry Mulligan has always had a generous supply of what is called scientific curiosity. Sometimes it gets us into trouble — like the time Freddy Muldoon and Dinky Poore got kidnapped for being too nosy about something Henry had discovered …”
It was a Christmas miracle.
About six months ago, I wrote that after a long search, I found an original, paperback copy of The Mad Scientists’ Club by Bertrand R. Brinley in a local thrift store.
Over the Christmas holiday, a nephew was getting rid of boxes of books, and, lo and behold, look what popped up: The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club, the 1968 Scholastic Book Services edition.
There was no need for any other gifts. (But don’t tell my family that.)
There’s five short stories in this collection: “The Telltale Transmitter,” “The Cool Cavern,” Big Chief Rainmaker,” “The Flying Sorcerer,” and “The Great Confrontation.” You can read more about them on the official site, started and maintained by Brinley’s son.
The stories range from 35 to 50 pages long; and though the main characters aren’t witches or vampires or Jedi or involved in post-apocalyptic games, I’d put them up against anything on the market.
If you’d like to find out for yourself (or until you can find your own physical copies), the books are available for Kindle.
For now, though, I’m content to hold on to the set and let my kids discover that things published in the last century aren’t necessarily old; they can be timeless, too.
What books are you holding for the next generation?
“The members of the Mad Scientists’ Club have a new project: to measure earth tremors around Mammoth Falls.
What they measure instead is an explosion at the local bank—after which two of their members are missing! And that’s only the beginning of another mad, mad, MAD adventure.”
