Talk:The Great Brain

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It appears to me that, starting with the section heading A Bygone Era, the tone of the article devolves from neutral exposition expected in an encyclopedia, and into a monographic essay that compares 1920's Utah to modern society, attempting to divine the author's motives. In fact I wonder if it was not adapted from some such essay.

Good reading, but not for Wikipedia; needs to be cleaned up to conform. -Ikkyu2 21:07, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree. The books are great children's reading, giving an account (if not totally accurate) events of another era in time. It is something of a period piece, though many of the situations are out of time. Basketball is WAY out of time, as is the sawing a women in half trick.

However, the anti-Hero is Tom, who really does have a great brain. He saves the townspeople from fraud, bank robbery, and does other good with it (capturing criminals)... but he is also a minor leauge criminal in his own right. After his outright swinldes are called out by his brother, he goes to more subtle actions. Overall he learns nothing but to me more careful, and after his brother puts him on trial, he never does cheat anybody unfairly again.

What are you talking about? When I say "good reading," I am referring to the article, not reviewing the books themselves. This talk page is for talk about the Wikipedia article in question, not the books. -Ikkyu2 23:57, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Question about "diabetes" being one of the topics dicussed in the books. I don't recall it ever coming up unless it was meant to be in reference to Tom's attempt to get Herbie the fat kid to lose weight.

If memory serves me correctly (quoting that general guy from Iron Chef), it seems that Frankie's rocking-horse was stolen by the diabetic kid's father. The family finds out and Frankie is generous enough to let him have it. Also, Herbie is a poet (which I said). 71.111.215.224 15:13, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

I read most of the Great Brain books when I was a kid. Diabetes was covered in the book, regarding the disease itself, not just some fat kid with the disease (I don't think the kid with it that it effected adversely was even fat.) It actually was a sad chapter, and mentioned how fortunately years later things later were better for those with the disease due to advances in medicine.

Regarding basketball, I don't think it was way out of time at all. It was something Tom introduced to the kids at the boarding school, as something he had read about that had been recently invented back East. (Anyway, I was very pleased to see this entry in Wikipedia!)