Sherlock Holmes is back in the news with the return of the PBS series about a modern day Sherlock and Watson. Unfortunately, the series isn’t as family-friendly as I had hoped. Our sixteen-year-old was going to watch the first episode with us and then he had too much homework. After seeing it, I was glad he missed it. I didn’t want to have a conversation about exactly what a dominatrix does. (That’s probably the only time you will see that word in a Project Mayhem post.)
But there are many other ways to introduce younger readers to Mr. Holmes. The original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle aren’t that difficult to read, but some may find them a bit dry. There are so many choices in middle grade and YA books, in fact, it’s hard to pick just a few. Here are two of my favorites:
Modern day twins who are the descendents of Sherlock find his casebook of unsolved crimes in the Sherlock Files series by Tracy Barrett. The first book, THE 100-YEAR-OLD SECRET involves a case on a painting missing for more than a hundred years. This series gets a thumbs up from my daughter.
Sherlock Holmes - The Legend Begins series by Andrew Lane is more tween/YA. The first book, DEATH CLOUD, starts when Sherlock is fourteen. The story puts him trying to figure out what happened to two men who died of symptoms resembling the plague. There’s a character who teaches Sherlock some of the methods which lead to his later legendary powers of observation. Here's the paperback cover of the same book (I have a strong preference for one over the other, so I thought I'd post the two):
And because I’ve immersed myself in all things Sherlock lately, here’s some trivia for the Star Trek fans. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Spock gives us a clue to his background, when he says, “An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains – however improbable – must be the truth.” I could believe Spock was a descendent of Holmes. Leonard Nimoy, the first Spock, even played Sherlock on stage in the seventies.
If you want more trivia, I did a post about Star Wars actors who have portrayed Sherlock on my blog. Sherlock Star Wars
So back to books. Are there any other middle grade or YA Sherlock books you can recommend?
~ Dee Garretson
