John Dennis Fitzgerald

In 1896 the Great Brain of Adenville, Utah, is almost twelve years old and more mischievous than ever in his practical jokes and schemes against everyone in town.

In turn-of-the-century Morman Utah, Tom's great brain comes up with eight more schemes, most of them concerned with earning money.

Tom, a.k.a. the Great Brain, is off to attend boarding school in Salt Lake City. Now his little brother, J.D., is free to follow in Tom's ingenious, conniving, and profitable footsteps. All of J.D.'s attempts at turning a profit fail miserably, and he soon realizes that he just doesn't have that crafty Great Brain knack. But when his younger brother is kidnapped by outlaws, J.D. finds that his little brain may not be so ordinary after all.