I first read this book in third or fourth grade from my school
library. The stories were great -- the heroes were smart kids
who had adventures using science and technology. It was a kind
of adolescent fantasy for juvenile high achievers, and, as it
turns out, many future computer hackers (hackers in the original,
true sense of the word -- don't get me started...).
Decades later I had forgotten the title but remembered some of the stories, and one day came across Mark Maxham's website where he had posted, for a time, scanned copies of three different Mad Scientists' Club books. I spent the next hour reading all of the stories while having flashbacks to grade school. Alas, Mr. Brinley's children have renewed the copyrights to their now-deceased father's works, and Mark took down the pages out of equal parts fear of litigation and respect for the author. Internet searches for copies of these books yield incredible asking prices for a thirty-five year old Scholastic book (remember the color order sheets from school that you'd fill out and return to your teacher?) that most parents probably discarded. UPDATE I finally found a copy in a thrift shop. It's in pretty good shape, with no missing pages and a good binding. The cover is slightly folded here and there, and the name "Carol Myers" is neatly written in cursive on the inside title page. The stories are still entertaining and the illustrations by Charles Geer are terrific. UPDATE REDUX
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Just a week later I found another copy, this time with no inside
illustrations and a cover by Leslie Morrill.
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UPDATE REDUX TWO
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I found a copy of The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club
in a thrift shop. There's some ink left from
some writing on the cover, but it's otherwise in great shape
and has Charles Geer's illustrations.
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UPDATE REDUX THREE:
I've received quite a bit of e-mail from many fans of the Mad Scientists' series who stumbled across this page. Many of them have reminded me that Bertrand Brinley's children sold the rights to reprint their father's stories to Purple House Press, who is in the process of reissuing each of the books. The first two books are back in print, and the third title, The Big Kerplop!, is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2003.
(There is also an "official" website to promote the stories here.) Until then, I am still looking for an original copy of The Big Kerplop! |
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UPDATE REDUX FOUR:
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I finally found an original (1974) copy of The Big Kerplop.
It's a full length novel about a lost bomb and how the kids help
the Air Force locate it at the bottom of Strawberry Lake.