Benton Books

I generally credit the Brains Benton books with jolting me into the life-long habit of reading. It was the early 1970s and I was perhaps nine or ten years old; they were just the right length and style for my reading skills and I inhaled all six titles in the series with a single, mighty breath. Three decades and then some later, I still have them on my shelf, and from time to time I take one down for nostalgia's sake.

Published in 1959, THE CASE OF THE MISSING MESSAGE is the first in the series. Written by Charles Spain Verral, an author who specialized in pulp-style adventure stories, the book introduces to the characters that will continue throughout the series: Jimmy Carson, an average "All American" boy with a paper route, and Barclay "Brains" Benton, whose bright red hair and extraordinary intelligence sets him apart from the crowd.

Together they are the Benton and Carson International Detective Agency, and when Jimmy tries to sell a newspaper subscription at an isolated and delapidated house he plunges both of them into mystery up to their eyeballs. In this instance, the mystery concerns a child who has been cheated of his inheritance: a carnival! Needless to say, the circumstance allows for plenty of colorful characterizations that range from a clown and a fortune teller to a wacky parrot and a stampeding elephant.

Brains has rigged up a crime lab over the family garage: press a nail in the board of alley fence and the wall slides back and a staircase slides down. They refer to each other as "X" and "Operative Three." Jimmy is fond of Cherry Fizz, his mother is always dieting, and his father likes a game of golf; Brains' parents teach at the local college. Details such as these make the books tremendous fun, and the author handles them very skillfully; unlike the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books, the Brains Benton books never feel as if they have been written by a committee to a very specific formula.

All of this said, I very much doubt that the books would appeal to a modern child plugged into the multi-media experience of our computer age. But adult fans of children's literature will find them a great deal of fun--and if you remember Jimmy and Brains from your own childhood, it will be a nostalgic treat. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

The adventures of Jimmy and Brains got me through my book reports in the 5th and 6th grade! This series of six books was along the same lines as the Hardy Boys. Two youthful sleuths solve local mysteries. Jimmy is the very average boy who plans a youthful "Doctor Watson" type role to Brains Benton's "Sherlock Holmes." I really enjoyed these books as a kid growing up and collected all six in the series. It is a shame they are out of print!

The adventures of Jimmy and Brains got me through my book reports in the 5th and 6th grade! This series of six books was along the same lines as the Hardy Boys. Two youthful sleuths solve local mysteries. Jimmy is the very average boy who plays a youthful "Doctor Watson" type role to Brains Benton's "Sherlock Holmes." I really enjoyed these books as a kid growing up and collected all six in the series.

This is a good chronological history of America comic books from 1896 to 1993 (the year it was published). It names pretty much every important comci book in the year it first appeared, and does not forget to mention the years that they ceased. Each year from 1932 onward is given its own entry with a title tht characterizes the year (ie: 1936: The Boom Begins, 1954: Seduction of the Innocent, 1984: The Collectors Take Over, etc). It is copiously illustrated with full-color reproduction of comic book covers, pages and panels of various sizes, many of them quite rare.

This all makes it very easy to track trends in comics, as well as find important moments in comic book history.

There are also chapters that lists and gives brief histories of every comic book company encyclopediacally. You can even find out when DC Comics was known as Detective Comics, National Periodical Publications, etc.

Finally, there is a chapter that gives insightful histories of the major comic book genres, such as Crime, Horror, Jungle, and Romance.

No scholar of comics should be without this book. It's clarity, organization, and succinctness make it an invaluable research tool, and the many, many illustrations make it fun to look at, too.

This book covers a very good selection of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. They have very good pictures and interesting facts. I especially like the graphic that shows the size compared to the size of man. I found this book to be very accurate and for the most part up to date. I would recommend it for children with an advanced interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. CSE

Kids love dinosaurs and are always wanting to learn more about the great "terrible" lizards that once roamed the Earth. This book is a dinosaur encyclopedia filled with information on all sorts of dinosaurs. The book is over a decade old, so some of the recently "discovered" dinosaurs aren't in here and some of the illustrations are dated. However, most of the information in the book is surprisingly still current and accurate. This would make a great gift for any elementary child who has an interest in dinosaurs.

Published as Volume 10 in the Geological Review Series of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the primary task of this commissioned book was to identify and notify geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) which would then come under the protection of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981).

Professor Benton is a leading academic in the field of British Vertebrate Palaeontology, and this book is an extensive work of original research, fully referenced: over 1,150 literature sources are cited. It is illustrated throughout with geological maps and tables, reptilian specimen drawings and reconstructions, and on-site photographs. It describes in detail his final selection of 50 SSSIs, explaining the special interest, palaeontological significance and heritage value of the specimens which each site has yielded. It goes far beyond the official requirements, providing a valuable reference source on the history of British vertebrate palaeontology, and an authoritative synopsis of current scientific opinion regarding the status and significance of British fossil reptiles.

A good introductory volume for anyone really wishing to understand the origins and course of the Franch and Indian War. It is well written and concise, and a fair number of contemporary sources are quoted in order to give the reader a better perspective. Included are quite a few illustrations, all of which, however, are black and white.

This is a great resource for beauty junkies, tourists and product whores who need to be coiffed, painted or laquered right away by the best. As a beauty professional in Los Angeles I have found this guide useful to refer my clients to as well as refering my colleagues. This is the ZAGAT's of beauty.

...it does not come with envelopes. Only paper that you are to make your own envelopes origami-style. My girls (11 and 9) had a little problem making them, they had to dig out their origami book for some help.
But otherwise, the happy bunny pictures and sayings on the cards are sarcastic and hysterical as usual, good for those "boys" :p (yucky) who deserve not so drippingly nice valentines.