WITH ALL THE DISCUSSION OF THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS, several readers have written to praise Bertrand Brinley’s Mad Scientists’ Club books, which — though fiction — certainly embody the “dangerous” approach. And there’s more than a glimpse of my own boyhood in them. As I wrote a while back: “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.”

As I noted elsewhere, my daughter devoured the Henry Reed books, but saw The Mad Scientists’ Club as more of a boy thing, which I can understand.