I'm looking for the name of a kid's book series.

December 14, 2013 9:40 AM

There was a short-lived kid's book series whose title that for the life of me I can't remember. It came out around the time that ESP McGee did. The main character had this unusual ability - he could draw anything and he had a photographic memory. The series was basically like Encyclopedia Brown, with a series of short mysteries in each volume, except that the clues to be gleaned were always hidden in the drawing. The protagonist, at the scene, always said "click" like a camera, and remembered the scene to be drawn later in his sketchbook. I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he asked me if it was Cam Jansen, who also says click, but I looked that series up and it's not her. Can anyone help? This has been haunting me for years.
posted by Sully to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

The Cam Jansen Series by David A Adler, maybe? It definitely has the "click", and the early books in the series are from the early 80s, same time frame as ESP McGee.

The main character is female, though, but the name is ambiguous enough that it'd be easy to mis-remember. Also, it looks like the series picked up again later, adding books through the 90s and 2000s. ,
posted by stormyteal at 10:13 AM on December 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Actually, I have an addition to that. I think you might be mixing up two different series, the Cam Jansen Series I mentioned above (for the "click") and the Hawkeye Collins and Amy Adams Series for the sketch and mini-mystery format. Same time frame, and (I think) all of the above books were available from (Scholastic and other) book clubs, which is where I got them.

And THANK YOU for reminding me of these! My kids would love them, and I've been wishing for more mini mystery-style books to share with them!
posted by stormyteal at 10:18 AM on December 14, 2013

Response by poster: Holy! Yes! HAWKEYE COLLINS. Oh my god. Now I have to ebay that. It's going to stroke all my childhood nostalgia muscles. THANK YOU!!!!
posted by Sully at 11:16 AM on December 14, 2013