Help me remember the names of some childhood books.

November 7, 2005 10:12 AM

I'm trying to remember the titles of a couple of book series I read as a kid. The first featured some kid detectives, and the other some kind of crazy family.

The only thing I can remember from the kid detective books is a storyline involving house burglars who would overturn trashcans to detect empty homes, and then duct tape the windows before shattering them to reduce noise. An escape involving the use of morse code with a flashlight from the back of a van might also have been involved.

The other series was about a family, and honestly I can't remember a whole lot about it besides the cover of one of them featuring b/w drawings of all the characters in the book around the perimeter of the cover. The main-character dad guy had a beard, i think? And may have been holding a pitch fork, or other gardening implement? The other covers of the books were similar, but with different color backgrounds. Plot-wise, all I remember was that the father was severely harassed by his weird family (incl. in-laws).

These were all library books, if that helps.

posted by shaneflyer to sports, hobbies, & recreation (12 comments total)

The first one sounds a lot like something from the "Encyclopedia Brown" series
posted by Wild_Eep at 10:26 AM on November 7, 2005

The first set of books sounds a bit like the Mad Scientist's Club series. Or maybe Encyclopedia Brown?
posted by misterbrandt at 10:26 AM on November 7, 2005

The first one sounds like it could be The Case of the Four Flying Fingers by E.W. Hildick.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:27 AM on November 7, 2005

on not preview ... uh .. yeah.
posted by misterbrandt at 10:27 AM on November 7, 2005

Beleaguered father, crazy family? That stands a good chance of being the Bagthorpes Saga, a British series that is hilarious and was sadly under-appreciated in the U.S.. The first book is here, and the others in the series are easily found. Highly recommended.

As for the detective books: I don't know the book you are thinking of, but one major mystery series were Hitchcock's The Three Investigators. Flashlights, vans, and Morse codes sound very much like their style.
posted by Miko at 10:32 AM on November 7, 2005

I think the first one's McGurk. That amazon description/review sounds about right (though I can't find any other info). Thx Wolfdog.
posted by shaneflyer at 10:33 AM on November 7, 2005

And I'm going to go ahead and land on Bagthorpe Saga for the second one... which i really didn't hold out much hope for. Thanks Miko and everyone else.
posted by shaneflyer at 10:39 AM on November 7, 2005

Yes! Definitely Bagthorps! This image confirms it: http://i13.ebayimg.com/04/i/05/24/4e/2e_1_b.JPG. Totally remember that cover.
posted by shaneflyer at 10:45 AM on November 7, 2005

Thanks Miko (and shaneflyer for posing the question)! I had totally forgetten about the 3 investigators novels.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 10:52 AM on November 7, 2005

Something about the plot of the first book that you described reminded me of a book called The Great Pistachio Case by Constance Layman. Did the kid detectives play football?
posted by gnat at 11:27 AM on November 7, 2005

I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure the book was a McGurk Mystery.
posted by shaneflyer at 12:15 PM on November 7, 2005

FYI, Helen Cresswell, who wrote the Bagthorpe books, died recently.
posted by Grangousier at 1:00 PM on November 7, 2005