The Brain Sharpeners Abroad
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Andersen, 1987)
Class 8’s exchange visit to Germany offers some originality, yet the Brain Sharpeners have become woefully ineffective, their hold over the students as tenuous as a repressed sneeze. Re plans to thwart them, Curtis is clearly making it up as he goes.
Mr Browser in the Space Museum
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Andersen, 1985)
Colonial fiction transposed to a SF setting. Curtis doesn’t have a great deal to say, but captures the attitudinal gulf between students and adults. Ross’s scratchy illustrations once again add a layer of engagement that the text couldn’t achieve on its own.
Beware of the Brain Sharpeners
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Anderson Press, 1983)
An underwhelming instalment. The Brain Sharpeners, rather than posing some insidious threat, now play the role of conscientious anti-nuclear interventionists. Their plan is gratuitous and the abducted students have no agency whatsoever. Curtis employs a jocular prose style devoid of actual humour.
Mr Browser and the Mini-Meteorites
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Andersen, 1983)
Though Spiky Jackson is nominally the protagonist, Curtis treats the entirety of Chivvy Chase School as one communal character. In this instance the alien invasion threat is thwarted due to adult intervention—inherently something of a let-down. Tony Ross’s illustrations add pep.
The Revenge of the Brain Sharpeners
by Philip Curtis; ill. Tony Ross (Anderson, 1982)
This direct sequel lacks the one-against-many tension of the original. The cast is the same but the protagonist viewpoint is diluted and the Brain Sharpeners have become ineffectual background threats, not menacing subverters lurking in the fog. Fun enough but relatively disappointing.
Mr Browser and the Brain Sharpeners
by Philip Curtis (Alfred A. Knopf, 1981); audiobook read by Sandi Toksvig (Brilliance, 2014)
A perfectly pitched middle grade adventure, pitting 10-year-old Michael Fairlie against egg-headed aliens who want to smarten up and then abduct his classmates. The foggy school oval and pepper-pot spaceships lend an eerie imagery to what otherwise is a fast, fun tale.