The Great Brain/YMMV


 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: In book 5, when JD arranges to put Tom on trial for being a con man, and Harold Vickers, JD's choice for judge, proceeds to shoot down all of Tom's Insane Troll Logic and finally puts him in his place after 4 books of jerkassery
 * Tear Jerker: Quite a few, particularly one chapter wherein Frankie's toy horse is stolen. The culprit:
 * The Woobie: JD can be one for the readers, since he's the Butt Monkey of the series.
 * Values Dissonance: Seeing as how the books are set over a century ago this is bound to apply to any modern day reader. One particularly egregious example comes in the third book when JD  Most people today would realize that this is not the way to help a traumatized child.
 * Wangst: JD's almost constant self-deprecation of his Butt Monkey status.