John D' Fitzgerald:

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John D. Fitzgerald The brain behind The Great
Brain By Sam Johnson
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• John D. Fitzgerald
• Biography
• Born February 3, 1906 Price, Utah
• Father Irish Catholic
• Mother Scandinavian Mormon
• Died May 20, 1988 Titusville, Florida

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• Worked a variety of jobs including
• Jazz drummer
• Foreign correspondent UPI
• Bank auditor
• Purchasing agent for steel factory

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Interesting Tid Bits His first novel, Papa
Married a Mormon, was a best seller and has been
translated into many languages. His wife
encouraged him to write childrens stories after
hearing him tell stories to friends about his
genius but scheming brother.
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Fitzgerald wrote 18 books but is best known for
his somewhat autobiographical childrens
series The Great Brain. All books except the
last one were illustrated by Mercer Mayer who
writes and illustrates the Little Critter series
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The Great Brain, 1967 More Adventures of the
Great Brain, 1969 Me and My Little Brain,
1971 The Great Brain at the Academy, 1972 The
Great Brain Reforms, 1973 The Return of the
Great Brain, 1974 The Great Brain Does it Again,
1975 The Great Brain is Back, 1995 (posthumous,
ill. by Diane de Groat
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Awards and Reviews The Great Brain series
popular in the US, Canada, England, and
Germany The Great Brain Reforms, Young Readers
Choice Award 1976 The Great Brain Does It Again,
Young Readers Choice Award 1978 Starred reviews
in the School Library Journal for The Great
Brain, More Adventures of the Great Brain, Me and
My Little Brain, The Great Brain at the Academy,
The Great Brain Reforms, and The Great Brain
Does It Again. For grades 4 7
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Movie poster for the first book of The Great
Brain
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Series Characteristics Semi-autobiographical Tak
es place in the fictional town of Adenville, Utah
(based on Fitzgeralds hometown of Price, Utah
and other places in Utah). The timeframe is the
turn of the 19th century The books are narrated
by John, the younger brother of Tom (the Great
Brain) Fitzgerald Tom is a genius who uses his
great brain to swindle his friends and
the towns people out of their money with many
ingenious schemes. In spite of Toms greed, he
usually ends up doing something good for
someone.

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• Use for series in a unit on historical
  fiction/history class
• 3 aspects emphasized to children
• Funny
• Well written
• Each book can be independently
• Real characters just set in different time
• Boys
• One aspect to emphasize to parents
• Book shows tolerance for other peoples race and
• religion.

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Book 1, Lesson Plan 1 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Great Brain. Illustrated by Mercer Mayer.
New York Dial, 1967. School Library Journal,
Nov. 1967, p. 67 The first in the Great Brain
series, John tells stories about his
greedy, genius brother Tom, aka The Great Brain.
Stories involve the first indoor toilet in their
small turn of the 19th century town, a newly
arrived immigrant boy, and many others.
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• Lesson Plan 1
• Read The Great Brain
• Think about the story of the Water Closet What
  things do
• we have in our houses today that people didnt
  have in 1896?
• On a piece of poster board create a timeline of
  ten things that
• we have today that people didnt have in 1896.
  Use
• drawings or photographs to illustrate your ten
  items. Make
• sure to include the date each item was invented.

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Book 2, Lesson Plan 2 Fitzgerald, John D. More
Adventures of the Great Brain. Illustrated
by Mercer Mayer. New York Dial, 1969. School
Library Journal, May, 1970 p. 71 Tom, the Great
Brain, has the town convinced he has reformed
his evil ways. But has he really? Or is he up
to his old tricks in stories like The Ghost of
Silverlode.
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Lesson Plan 2

• Tom convinced the town that a monster lived in a
  cave
• outside of town. What monsters from mythology
  have you
• heard about? Write a one page essay on a
  similar monster
• from either Greek, Native American, Asian, or
  African
• mythology.

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Book 3, Lesson Plan 3 Fitzgerald, John D. Me
and My Little Brain. Illustrated by Mercer
Mayer. New York Dial, 1971. School Library
Journal, Nov. 1971, p. 114. Tom, the Great
Brain, has gone to boarding school leaving
younger brother John to fill the shoes of the
towns most conniving con man. Is he up to the
task?
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• Lesson Plan 3
• Now that Tom is away at boarding school, John
  tries to
• be like him. Is there somebody you admire and
  want to
• be like? Write a 1-2 essay about a person you
  admire. The
• person choose can be someone famous or someone
  you
• know. Be sure to explain why you would like to
  be like this
• person.

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Book 4, Lesson Plan 4 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Great Brain at the Academy. Illustrated by
Mercer Mayer. New York Dial, 1972. School
Library Journal, Dec. 1972 p. 59. Tom, the
Great Brain, is at boarding school in Salt Lake
City. He quickly discovers that its not easy to
outwit the schools administration or the
entire eighth grade.
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Lesson Plan 4 Tom has been sent to a boarding
school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Write a 3 -5
page research paper on the history of Salt Lake
City. Be sure to include all your sources. For
extra credit, try to find as many pictures as
you can of all the places in Salt Lake City
mentioned in the story.
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Book 5, Lesson Plan 5 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Great Brain Reforms. Illustrated by Mercer
Mayer. New York Dial, 1973. School
Library Journal, Oct. 1973, p. 66 After a
swindle of Toms (the Great Brain) goes horribly
wrong the frequently swindled and conned kids of
Adenville put the Great Brain on trial.
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Lesson Plan 5 In this book, one of the stories,
Alkali Flats focuses on the land and geography
of Utah. On poster board, make a map of Utah
with all its geological features (mountains,
rivers, salt plains,etc). Be sure to clearly
label all features.
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Book 6, Lesson Plan 6 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Return of the Great Brain. Illustrated
by Mercer Mayer. New York Dial, 1974. School
Library Journal, Oct. 1974, p. 112 The Great
Brain has been tried and found guilty of being a
swindler and a con man by the kids of Adenville.
After receiving a 1 year suspended sentence of
being ostracized by the kids, the Great Brain
reforms. Be careful what you wish for.
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Lesson Plan 6 Tom recognized a robber by a scar
on his face. Today we have modern techniques
such as finger printing to catch criminals. Read
the handout on fingerprinting and study the
different characteristics of fingerprints.
Later, well make our own fingerprints and
examine them.
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Book 7, Lesson Plan 7 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Great Brain Does It Again. Illustrated by
Mercer Mayer. New York Dial, 1975.
School Library Journal, April 1975, p. 52 Tom
is using that Great Brain of his to cook up
money- making schemes, solve mysteries, and even
write to the President.
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Lesson Plan 7 In the Great Brain Does It Again,
the Pa-Roos-Its Indian tribe is put on
a reservation. Write a 3 5 page paper about
the Pa-Roos- Its tribe or another tribe native to
Utah. Be sure to include your sources.
Extra credit in front of the class tell a myth
from the tribe you wrote about.
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Book 8, Lesson Plan 8 Fitzgerald, John D. The
Great Brain is Back. Illustrated by Diane de
Groat. New York Dial, 1995. School Library
Journal, March, 1995, p. 204. Published 7
years after Fitzgeralds death, this is the last
in the Great Brain series. Tom is as
mischievious as ever and New illustrator Diane
de Groat keeps the same black and White style of
drawing as previous illustrator Mercer Mayer.
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Lesson Plan 8 One of the chores Tom and Johns
mother and Aunt Bertha did was to can or
preserve fruits and vegetables. Why was this
important in those days? Who invented the
process known as canning? What was the
process? What could happen if this process were
done improperly?
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Works Cited Comire, Anne, ed. Something about
the Author. Vol. 20. Detroit Gale Research
Company, 1980. Godfrey, Audrey M. The Promise
Is Fulfilled Literary Aspects of John D.
Fitzgerald's Novels. Paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Association of Mormon
Letters, Weber State University, Ogen, Utah,
January 28, 1989. http//mldb.byu.edu/94/godfrey.
htm
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