My husband is always talking about a series of books he read as a boy (born 1957), probably from school or city library. He remembers them being called “Adventures in…” followed by some sort of science title. The protagonists were two boys, one or both pre-teens. They would travel with their father and have what I guess were all science adventures (there could have been others, like mathematics, but my husband remembers only the two that were science oriented). The two he always talks about are the chemistry book (perhaps Adventures in Chemistry?) where the boys went to a laboratory and made toothpaste (he remembers the younger boy tasting the toothpaste and liking it) and a book about model rockets (Adventures in Rocketry, perhaps?). The boys and their dad are driving to a deserted place where they can shoot off their rockets and are stopped by the police who see all the rockets and the rocket motors in the car and are upset; maybe the dad shows them a permit to shoot off rockets or something to let the police know they are no threat. It’s our 25th anniversary coming up and I’d love to dig up one of these books, but I’ve never found them searching online.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Is it possibly the Rick Brant Science Series (popular at the time you indicated)? There are two boys (Rick and a friend). Rick’s dad is a scientist and Rick and his friend get involved in Rick’s dad’s work projects, one of which involves rockets. Each book involves a different science project.
http://www.series-books.com/rickbrant/rickbrant.html
Thanks, Mary, but he says he remembers the titles clearly as “Adventures in….” and none of the Brant books seem to be that way. Rick Brant has a sister, not a brother; he clearly remembers an older brother (high school age) with a little brother. So it would be “Adventures in Rocketry,” “Adventures in Chemistry,” “Adventures in Engineering,” etc.
I have been searching for the exact same series since I read them in the 70s, also with no luck. I doubt it helps but I know they were at the Hot Springs Public Library in Hot Springs Arkansas around 1977.
How about: “There’s Adventure in Chemistry” by Julian May, pub. Popular Mechanics Press, 1957.
Other titles are/include ‘electronics’, ‘jet aircraft’, ‘rockets’, ‘atomic energy’.
Two brothers, named Randy and Sam.
Some of the covers can be seen here https://archive.org/search?query=%22there%27s+adventure+in%22+