The Great Brain

By: John Fitzgerald

Narrated by: Ron McLarty

The Great Brain is Tom D. Fitzgerald, aged ten. The story is told by J.D., a sometimes confounded but always admiring younger brother. Such people as Mr. Standish, the mean schoolmaster, regret the day they came up against The Great Brain. But others, like the Jensen kids lost in Skeleton Cave, Basil, the Greek kid, or Andy, who has lost his leg and his friends, know that Tom's great brain never fails to find a way home.

Great listening

This book was a delight for our whole family (kids 8 and 10). It sparked interesting discussions on a variety of topics. The reader really made the book come to life and the story was compelling.

Great Book for All

I had originally read this book when I was in grade school. listened to this book with my second-grade son and it has been fun he said, "Kids really can do anything if they just think about the problem!" Entertaining to see the problems and opportunities of a small town play out.

I loved these books as a kid

I read these books as a 9 year old and identified with both JD, and The Great Brain.
Now almost 40 years later I'm reading them as an adult and loving them all over again!

Great as a kid, fun revisiting!

One of my favorite stories as a kid and fun to revisit as an adult. Perfect narrator for this story as well!

Highly entertaining -

If you could sum up The Great Brain in three words, what would they be?

and wonderfully immersive turn of the century (19th/20th!) stories that I loved when I was a boy. I hope that the rest of the books turn up on Audible soon, my children are 11 and 8, and we only have a few years of interest left, I am afraid. At least, until they are parents.

Other reviewers have given great descriptions of the historical setting, so I won't bother to repeat that.

We listened to this audiobook on a road trip with my children and they made me sit in the driveway when we finally got home (for 10 minutes) to hear the end of a particularly suspenseful chapter. Good stuff - thrills, history, and laughs, what more can one ask for?