For those of you wondering "who the hell is that"? Donald J. Sobol wrote the Encyclopedia Brown series of detective books. These were aimed squarely at grade-school and early teens but were accessible by anyone. Each book had around 10 short stories where EB and his friend/bodyguard Sally would take on a case, often involving the local bully, some friendly advice from his police-chief dad and there was always an opportunity at the end of the story for you to solve the crime because the resolution was at the end of the book. It was cleverly-written, at least to my 9-year-old mind, and quite entertaining.
Mr. Sobol passed away today at the ripe old age of 87 and I was a bit shaken by this. He was one of my favorite authors after all. It made me think back to how I got introduced to him in the first place: through the Reading Is Fundamental program.
RIF was pretty awesome for a young aspiring nerd-boy like me. Free books? Yes, please. Our school used to set the RIF books out on card tables in the hallways, usually every few months. We had a diverse selection of Sobol, Beverly Cleary, E.B. White and others typically with the NEWBERRY AWARD seal on the front to let us know it was adult-approved.
I looked forward to RIF time because that meant I got a new Encyclopedia Brown book to devour. Somehow the next volume was sitting there waiting for me every time. I'm sure being friendly with the school's librarian had nothing to do with this. These were some of the few bright spots in my otherwise forgettable childhood.
RIF is still around, though I'm sure less school districts are taking advantage of the program. I'm sad to see Mr. Sobol is not on the book list anymore but Neil Gaiman is. Makes me wish I had a card table in the hallway right about now.
Correction: he actually passed on July 11th. Here's a little more detailed Obit piece from WaPo.