Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablo's Nose

Desmoana came to the front door herself.  "What do you want?" she demanded, giving Pablo an unfriendly look.
Pablo accused her straightaway.  "About an hour ago you stole my nose didn't you?"
"No, but I should have," Desmoana retorted. "I'd have improved your looks."


Stolen noses, masked men, and smoke signals are all apart of this newest Encyclopedia Brown Kindle release from Yearling on May 4, 2011. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablos Nose by Donald J. Sobol is a good choice for critical thinkers or for getting children to start problem-solving. Each short mystery is full of clues that make solving the mystery with Encyclopedia Brown a ton of fun.

Without giving too much away, I'll just say that this time around, Encyclopedia uses wordplay to figure out a safe's combination, one of the presidents to catch a forger, and a wallet full of money to prove that a thief was blind. As usual, a good and fun workout for the brain. Pencil illustrations by Eric Velasquez occur at key moments in the text.

The mysteries included in this volume are:
The Case of the Sleeveless Lock
The Case of the Smoke Signals
The Case of the Peace Offering
The Case of the Masked Man
The Case of the Organ-Grinder
The Case of Pablo's Nose
The Case of the Carousel Horse
The Case of the Wilford Whammy
The Case of the Racing Reptiles
The Case of the Unknown Thief

While I found this particular selection of mysteries much more difficult to solve than some of the others in previous books I've reviewed, I still enjoyed Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablos Nose.  I am rating it only for 10-12-year-olds this time, however, since I feel that the solutions might be discouraging to the 6-9 age range this time around.

Will you figure out what happened to Pablo's nose?