NOSTALGIA: I recently read Bertrand Brinley’s The Big Kerplop a “new” release in his series of Mad Scientists’ Club books that I enjoyed when I was a kid. That led me to reread some of the other books, too, and I found that they held up pretty well over time. I’m donating them to my daughter’s school, which is always looking for new kids’ books.

Somebody should (heck, maybe somebody has) look at the influence of those kids’ science adventure books, including others like the older Danny Dunn books, on several generations of geeks.

UPDATE: Interesting review at Slashdot, with an observation that occurred to me, too — the kids in the Mad Scientists’ Club stories seem a lot more independent and free-ranging than kids today. And I think that, with allowances for their excessively-easy access to vital items of scientific equipment at crucial story points, these are pretty realistic portrayals of kids in the 1960s and 1970s. (Sounds like my gang o’ geeks, anyway.) Lots of interesting stuff in the comments, too, including a reference to the Henry Reed books, which I’ve mentioned here before.

Can you tell that my mom is a children’s librarian?