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The Leading Edge
Northern Illinois Rocketry Association
by Jeff Pleimling
The Mad Scientists' Club
I first read this book over thirty years ago - it was one of the books that sparked both my love of reading and also my love of science and, through that, rocketry. Bertrand Brinley, interestingly enough, is also the author of Rocket Manual for Amateurs (published in 1960) that many people still reference when getting involved in amateur rocketry.
The Mad Scientists' Club is a set of short stories about a group of seven intelligent, inquisitive boys who use their brains to get thenselves into (and out of) adventures. It is obviously a book written in the 1960s - there are very few female characters and none of them are important to the stories.
These seven stories take them from spoofing their town with a 'Sea Monster' to finding a dinosaur egg and even balloon race. Throughout the stories, they work together (mostly) as a team to achieve their goal and they also outwit Harmon Muldoon - a former member of the club who was kicked out for conduct unbecoming a scientist.
This is still an excellent book to get kids interested in reading and science. I've already read a couple of the stories to my kids and they love the stories (what kid doesn't like stories about other kids pulling the wool over adult eyes). I do have to stop and explain some of the early 1960s references to them (and also that there weren't video games or fruit snacks).
The book is published by Purple House Press, a small printing company that is specializing in reprinting all of the favorite childrens books that are now out of print. If you have a childhood favorite that you haven't seen in a bookstore in a while, check out www.purplehousepress.com .
Response to the republishing of The Mad Scientists' Club has been so positive that Purple House Press is getting The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club ready to be published in eary 2002. This volume contains the last five short stories that Bertrand Brinley wrote about the Mad Scientists' Club. I can't wait!
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