Rob Nunn's Blog: Interesting Though Elementary, page 27

I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Since You Became His Chronicler

We've been hit with a nice bit of weather in the Midwest this week, so I've been trying to get out with my dog for walks each day to wear down some of her energy.    Two days after this picture was taken, she ate the pillow.Yesterday, we took a nice, long walk, and I was able to finally listen to the latest episode of Blue Dot, anl NPR show out of northern California, that featured Scott Monty and Burt Wolder.  Now, if you've followed this blog for a while, you know I'm a fan of podcasts, especially Sherlockian podcasts, and Scott and Burt's offerings are at the top of my favorites list.
I enjoy my weekly dose of Trifles, but their namesake podcast, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, is the best show out there, for my money.  Coming out twice a month, IHOSE takes a deep dive into different aspects of our Sherlockian hobby.  The last few episodes alone have covered the gamut of lost radio scripts, the Baker Street Journal Christmas annual, The Junior Sherlockian Society, a major collection going up for auction, and a new pastiche.  

Scott and Burt have a relaxed yet professional demeanor on the air and their bonafides in the Sherlockian world are unquestionable.  Listening to their interviews with a different Sherlockian of note each episode always leads to an interesting discussion and things I wasn't aware of before listening.  
But if you're reading a Sherlockian blog, you are probably well aware of IHOSE.  What I really enjoyed about the episode of Blue Dot was hearing the tables turned on the IHOSE hosts.  In an hour long interview, we got to hear their Sherlockian origins, how their friendship grew, and their thoughts on different Sherlockian topics.  Towards the end of the interview, host Dave Schlom asked them for their immediate opinions of certain canonical characters.  I was pretty pleased with myself when I had some of the same responses to the names thrown out.

And that got me to thinking: that's what keeps most of us coming back to our hobby of Sherlockiana.  Whether its scion meetings, conferences, or online discussions, being a Sherlockian is not a solitary habit.  Sure, you can read the Canon, write fanfiction, or watch movies all on your own, but don't most of us want to talk about it with people of a similar ilk?  
I love meeting other Sherlockians, whether they are seasoned veterans with lots of stories to share or folks new to the fold that are just dipping a toe in, and almost all of them have been good people.  I was talking with another member of the Holmes in the Heartland planning committee last weekend and said that I'm definitely looking forward to the speeches and demonstrations we are lining up, but I'm most looking forward to spending time with other Sherlockians.  Because Sherlockians are good folks.

P.S. A follow up from last week's post:  I got my Burger King toy.  The jury is still out on if I will check out the movie.

I Was Invited to a Week-End Gathering

First of all, I'm really excited to share the news that The Parallel Case of St. Louis scion society is hosting their first ever Holmes in the Heartland weekend on August 10-12! 

This event is to announce the opening of the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection in the Rare Books Room of the St. Louis Public Library.  The weekend promises scholarly talks on Sherlockian topics, blues, BBQ, tea, history and lots and lots of camaraderie. Registration for the weekend will open in May, but mark your calendars now for a weekend of good times with some great Sherlockians!


What I've dubbed The Irregular Canonical Book Club has really been a topic of conversation over the past two weeks!  I really just meant to set down a goal for myself to get back to the source material of our great hobby, but there are a lot of us out there who want to do the same thing!  So, I guess there should be a few ground rules:

1.  There is no set order, limit or structure to what you have to read to be part of The Irregular Canonical Book Club.  As long as you are going back and reading the Canon for fun in 2018, welcome to the club!

2.  The purpose of this is to motivate ourselves to revisit the Canon and to encourage others to do the same.  If you are looking for a weekly discussion on specific stories, The Hounds of the Internet email list is a great resource for structured discussion.

3.  That's it.  Read the Canon and have fun.


At our Parallel Case meeting yesterday, we talked about all of the adaptations coming to TV and the movies.  There are a lot! 

Elementary returns on April 30.

Miss Sherlock premiers on HBO Asia in April, also.

Will Ferrell's Holmes and Watson will be in theaters in November.

Breakout star of Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown, will star in a series of movies based off of the Enola Holmes mysteries.

And Sherlock Gnomes premieres in movie theaters on March 23.  Burger King currently has toys to go with the animated movie in their kids meals, including a Holmes toy and a Watson toy.


And here's where I'm in a conundrum.  The movie looks bad, really bad.  Lots of fart jokes, boring animation, and characters that strike me as both broad and bland at the same time.

But it's a Sherlock Holmes movie.  There's a part of me that still wants to go see it, just to support Sherlock Holmes getting out there, especially in a medium that introduces him to kids.  Sure, most of the kids are going to enjoy the fart jokes the most, but a few of them just might get a Sherlockian seed planted that grows into the next generation of Sherlockians that are writing books, attending scion meetings, and making great contributions to our hobby.

Luckily, I have a few weeks to decide.  Until then, I'll just pick up my Burger King toy to add to the bookshelf. 

Come Along, And Show What You Can Do

Well, the BSI Weekend is over, and people are making their ways back home.  The New York Times posted a nice write up of the weekend yesterday, which is great for folks like me that followed the events from the warmth of our own houses. 


News also broke this week that Millie Bobby Brown of the Netflix hit, Stranger Things, has signed a multi-picture deal to play Enola Holmes, Sherlock's younger sister, based off of the book series by Nancy Springer.


Speaking of books, that brings me to this week's topic: reading.  (This topic probably doesn't come as a surprise to frequent readers of the blog.  In fact, I almost named the blog "I Am An Omnivorous Reader")  Two weeks ago, I posted my list of Sherlockian resolutions, and one of them in particular got some specific feedback. 

Apparently, I'm not the only Sherlockian out there who is tackling the Canon this year.  I received tweets and emails from other folks who are even more ambitious than I am, and are planning on doing all 56 short stories and 4 novels!  And, why not?  These stories are what link all of us to our hobby.  Sure, it's easy to get caught up in new TV shows, pastiches and movies, or analyze the writings through scholarly writings, but how often do we just go back and reread the original stories for fun?


The impetus for me trying to reread a story a week this year was that I found I was only reading the stories to prepare for society meetings, so I would be refreshed on the plot and details.  My purpose for reading was to go into discussions armed with topics and minutiae for the group.  Now, I'll still do that to prepare for meetings, but I want to spend the rest of the year reading these stories for fun.  Because these are fun stories! 

Well, most of them (Looking at you, Veiled Lodger.)


So, join us this year!  You don't have to try and tackle the whole Canon or set a goal to read a story a week, but pick up the Canon and revisit some great fun.  Because we wouldn't be doing this if it weren't fun, right?

About Being a Sherlockian: An Interview with Chris Redmond

Yesterday was the date generally recognized as Sherlock Holmes' birthday.  People all across the world celebrated in their own ways.  I was lucky enough to have breakfast and then lunch with two different groups of Sherlockians for very different purposes.  I can't imagine a better way to celebrate the Great Detective's birthday than spending time with other Sherlockians.


Steve and Rusty Mason of Dallas' scion society, The Crew of the Barque Lone Star, were passing through the St. Louis area on their way to the BSI Weekend in New York.  They had dinner Friday night with some members of The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn and The Parallel Case of St. Louis, but I was unable to attend.  Luckily for me, they wanted to meet the next morning and we had a great time.  I'd never met either of these guys in person before, but I work with Steve on The Beacon Society and have communicated with him a lot.  After two and a half hours, we had to break up our little get together so they could get on the road, and I had my next appointment for the day.  I gave them a copy of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street, and they gave me copies of the two newest installments of Baker Street Elementary, as well as some authentic Texas beer.  I wish I could've spent more time with them.  Steve and Rusty are some great guys, and if the Dallas area Sherlockians are half as cool as them, there's a pretty great scion down there!


The second part of my day was meeting with other members of The Parallel Case of St. Louis, my home scion.  We are in the process of planning a Sherlockian event, and sat down to meet in person.  As the five of us hashed out ideas and made decisions, I had to take a second to pinch myself to realize how lucky I am to be part of this group.  While none of us at the table were fresh out of college, we were what I presume to be "young" by Sherlockian standards.  All of us have very different careers, from the opera to the library to the medical field, and we all have our own Sherlockian origin stories.  One member of the planning committee has been a part of The Parallel Case for over 20 years, while another just got into this in 2016.  But everyone at the table was working towards a common goal: to create an event that celebrates Sherlock Holmes and allows for Sherlockians to come together and meet new people.  Needless to say, I'm very excited not just about the people I'm working with, but the project we are working on.   I am hoping that we can announce our project by next month.  Stay tuned!

But all of this is just a lead up to this week's post.  My day with Dallas and St. Louis Sherlockians really drove home what a great, welcoming, and different community we are.  And there is a new book out that celebrates that.  Chris Redmond is one of our living treasures in Sherlockiana.  Not only is he knowledgeable and has an impressive output, but he is always welcoming to new members of our little hobby.  Chris has spent the last few years very active on Twitter openly discussing Sherlockiana with newcomers as well as editing two books about the Canon and Sherlockiana as a whole.  Both of these books (as well as a forthcoming third) include a mixture of old guard and fresh faces.  Chris was also the mastermind behind the internet's first big Sherlock Holmes site, sherlockian.net.  He has published too many books to mention here, but a quick Amazon search of his name will make your TBR list explode.


As I read Chris' latest collection, About Being a Sherlockian (which, full disclosure, I have an article in), I had so many questions about the curation of the project.  Chris was kind enough to answer my questions via email last week, and I am happy to share his insights with you now.


The newest anthology you've edited, About Being a Sherlockian, is about the different avenues that Sherlockiana takes in our daily lives.  What is your definition of a "Sherlockian"?
Well, a Sherlockian is somebody who’s seriously interested in Sherlock Holmes. Beyond that, I try to address this question somewhat in my Introduction to the new anthology, but really the whole book was created in an attempt to answer it.
How did you become a Sherlockian yourself?
Quite recently I’ve realized that I may have had my first exposure to Sherlock Holmes through the wonderful children’s book Freddy the Detective by Walter R. Brooks, of which I currently have three copies on my shelves. After that, I read the Sherlock Holmes stories when I was in my early teens, as so many people do, or at least did in my generation. Most of them grow out of it, but a lucky few never do, and that was me. I’ve been an active Sherlockian now since 1964.

What sparked this project into being?
About Being a Sherlockian  is a successor to About Sixty, the anthology I produced last year with essays by 60 Sherlockians each championing one of the original 60 Canonical tales as “the best”. I had so much enjoyment out of that project, and the idea of a book by 60 diverse Sherlockian authors was so well received, that I was eager to do it again, and I thought it would be a compelling way to describe the breadth and diversity of Sherlockian life.

How did you choose the sixty participants and their topics for About Being a Sherlockian?
The new book includes 19 authors who also appeared in About Sixty, and 41 newcomers. I tried to cover as many different aspects of Sherlockiana as possible, so I looked for a collector or two, a society organizer or two, a librarian, a pastiche author, an actor, and so on. I also tried for diversity in age and geography, and a balance of the sexes. The majority of the authors, though not all, are people I know as friends, either in person or through online activity.
How did you choose to arrange the sixty essays in the book?
It took a while to think that through, but eventually I grouped them into five sections, with names evocative of the five books of canonical short stories: “The Advent of Sherlock Holmes” with an emphasis on how people first met Holmes and how they have grown in this community; “The Members”, mostly about Sherlockian societies; “The Retooling”, about new understandings of Sherlock Holmes and new ways of being a Sherlockian; “His Latest Bows”, about some individual variations and explorations; and “The Book-Case”, about Sherlockians as authors, readers, and traffickers in books.

I know all sixty essays are your favorite for different reasons, but are there some that stick out for particular reasons?
There’s such a variety that it’s impossible to rank them. This book has four essays by authors who are fairly well known outside just the Sherlockian world, and I was glad to get them involved early — they added credibility as the book took shape. But many of the other 56 pieces are gems too. Someone said this week that they were brought to tears twice reading the book, by the words of Mattias Boström and Tim Johnson, and I can understand why. I’m also proud to have included a memorable, flag-planting essay by Elinor Gray, an advocate of Holmes as “queer detective”; a touching reminiscence by John Sherwood about his experiences impersonating Holmes; and the wonderful “The Bones of Justice” by Carlina de la Cova.
You aren't a Sherlockian that lets the grass grow underneath him.  What projects are on the horizon for you?

There will be a third 60-author anthology next year, Sherlock Holmes Is Like, with essays comparing Sherlock Holmes to figures of history, mythology and literature, including Houdini, Robin Hood, Hamlet, Doctor Who, and Peter Pan. The authors will include many veterans of the first two collections, but about half of them will be newcomers.

No matter the subject matter, if Chris Redmond is behind the project.  You know it's going to be good!

This Resolution of Mine

Well, we find ourselves at the end of another year, looking into the beginning of a new one.  At the beginning of 2016, I wrote about Sherlockian New Year's resolutions over on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, but conveniently didn't publicize what my particular goals for the year were. 

I'm a To Do list kind of person, so to hold myself accountable, here are my Sherlockian goals for 2018:


First things first.  Sherlockiana is all rooted in the Canon.  Every time I return to one of the original stories, I thoroughly enjoy my time there and realize that I don't know them as well as I think I do.  But it's so easy to get distracted by other writings, media interpretations and discussions about Sherlockiana.  So, I am resolving to read one story a week this year: 52 short stories by the end of the year.  Even if I fall short, I still feel like I'm going to be sitting pretty.  For anyone interested, here is my schedule for the first few months:

Jan 7      The Adventure of the Three Students Jan 14    The Adventure of the Copper Beeches Jan 21    The Adventure of the Musgrave RitualJan 28    The Adventure of the Reigate SquireFeb 4     The Adventure of the Crooked ManFeb 11   The Adventure of the Gold Pince Nez Feb 18   The Adventure of the Resident PatientFeb 25   The Adventure of the Greek InterpreterMar 4     Silver Blaze Mar 11  The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter Mar 18  The Adventure of the Naval TreatyMar 25  The Adventure of the Final ProblemApr 1     The Adventure of the Empty HouseApr 8     The Adventure of the Norwood BuilderApr 15   The Adventure of the Abbey Grange Apr 22   The Adventure of the Dancing MenApr 29   The Adventure of the Solitary CyclistMay 6    The Adventure of the Cardboard Box May 13  The Adventure of the Second Stain May 20  The Adventure of the Priory SchoolMay 27  The Adventure of Black Peter

And now that The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street is out and the initial promotion is over, I wanted to come up with something novel to keep it interesting for folks out there.  For that, I've created a Facebook page for The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.  Starting on January 1, you will start seeing updates from Sherlock Holmes himself reminiscing about his adventures throughout the year.  If you haven't already checked out the page, give it a follow!
Speaking of writing projects, I've had my next writing project on the back burner for a few months now, and my goal is to start working on it in the next month.  It's going to be geared towards younger readers, and my research will start in earnest this winter.  My hope is that I will be ready to start the writing process by the spring.

But my big goals this year are to contribute to the wider world of Sherlockiana.  I am chair of The Beacon Society's program committee, and the committee is working hard to gather resources to make teaching Sherlock Holmes to all ages easier for educators.  My hope is that our work with The Beacon Society will help educators who are passionate about Holmes (or even those who are casually interested) be able to easily find ideas and lessons that can be used in their classrooms, libraries and other settings.

A list of my Sherlockian resolutions wouldn't be complete without mentioning The Parallel Case of St. Louis, my home scion.  We are on a good roll lately, with great discussion and steady attendance numbers.  My goal is to keep that momentum while being open and inviting to any other Sherlockians in the St. Louis area that might be interested in joining us.  We are also planning a conference for sometime in the late spring/early summer, titled "Holmes in the Heartland."  Just thinking about this conference and the great group of people at these meetings makes me giddy.  

And last, but not least, is my stretch goal.  I am a huge fan of The Baker Street Journal, and am like a kid on Christmas each time it shows up in my mailbox.  I am in awe of the scholarly research regularly printed in those pages, and for years I have hoped to write an article for the BSJ.  In fact, the idea for The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street originally started out as an article for the Baker Street Journal, but it quickly ballooned to too large for an article.  So, my goal is to muster up the courage to submit something to the BSJ.  Will it be good enough to get in?  Who knows.  But, as Holmes tells Watson in THOR, "we can but try."

Let Me Recommend This Book

Last week, I highlighted a few great books from MX Publishing, the publisher of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.  Today, as another piece of my year in review posts, I want to highlight some of the best Sherlockian books I've read this year.  Not all of these were necessarily published in 2017, but they are all worth adding to your collection, if you haven't already...


From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Bostrom

I've already spoken at length about how great this book is.  But, no Sherlockian year in review will be complete this year without mention of this book.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this book should be in every Sherlockian collection.


Arthur and Sherlock by Michael Sims

This history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation was all we could talk about at two meetings in a row this summer for The Parallel Case of St. Louis.  Michael Sims takes this history of literature's greatest detective and turns it into a page-turner in his own right. 


About Sixty: Why Every Sherlock Holmes Story is the Best edited by Christopher Redmond

Chance are, you probably know someone who wrote an essay in this book.  Because editor Chris Redmond made it a point to find 60 diverse authors to pen essays making an argument on which Sherlock Holmes story is the best.  Of course, we all know that SIGN is the best, but the other 59 authors' work are insightful and informative looks into how we view the different stories in the Canon.


The Whole Art of Detection by Lyndsay Faye

The only pastiche on this list, because after reading Lydsay Faye's Sherlockian writing, nothing else will ever compare.  Fifteen short stories are collected in this book, and each one is better than the last.  Faye not only makes you feel like you are reading a story that Doyle misplaced a hundred years ago, but makes you truly appreciate the friendship between Holmes and Watson as her stories take you through their lives together.


The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library edited by Leslie Klinger

I admit that I have only read 5 out of the 10 volumes in this collection, but oh man, do I love these books!  Exhaustively researched and annotated, this collection is a cornerstone for a scholarly collection on Sherlock Holmes.  Even if you have read every story in the Canon over and over, Leslie Klinger will bring new insights and research to you on every page.

You Will Find Some Books Over There

Last week's post centered around a Sherlockian book that didn't click with me.  I'm going in the complete opposite direction for the next two weeks and highlighting some Sherlockian books that I've really enjoyed over the years.  This week's post will focus solely on books from MX Publishing, the publisher of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.  Next week, my best Sherlockian books of 2017.  In no particular order, here are some of my favorite titles from MX:


56 Sherlock Holmes Stories in 56 Days by Charlotte Anne Walters
This is a whirlwind tour through the canon's short stories.  The title says it all.  Charlotte Anne Walters set the goal for herself to read a story a day for almost 2 months straight.  Sounds easy, right?  Well, life has other obligations.  So whether she's trying to keep her eyes open at night or fitting a story in on her subway ride to work, Walters charges ahead.  The result of her efforts is a concise and pleasant synopsis of each story with just enough personal details to relate to us all.  This is a book I find myself dipping back into repeatedly if I just need a quick refresher on a certain story.  It's a great resource and a fun read for anyone out there.

Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World by Thomas Kent Miller

After dispatching Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, Sherlock Holmes disappeared, spending two years traveling in Tibet. Thomas Kent Miller's "Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World" is the first in a series filling in those missing years in the great detective's life. This is a quick and very enjoyable read. In the book, we find Holmes under the guise of Sigerson, a Norwegian explorer, meeting up with Horace Holly and Leo Vincey from H. Rider Haggard's novel "She" in a protected Buddhist library. From there, our three characters are the focal point of a fast paced mystery. Because Dr. Watson was not around during this point in Holmes' life, this story is narrated by Leo Vincey, and the narration style is more in the way of Haggard's adventures than Doyle's mysteries. This book was a delight to read, and if you are a Holmes fan, H. Rider Haggard adventure fan, or just a fan of a well told tale, you should give "Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World" a shot.


A Professor Reflects on Sherlock Holmes by Marino Alvarez

I've had the chance to work with Marino Alvarez on a writing project this year and have been very impressed with his canonical knowledge and professional demeanor.  So when I saw he had a book, it immediately jumped to the top of my TBR list.  I read his book this summer and the variety of essays in this collection were all a delight in their own different ways.  One essay may delve into the educational importance of the Sherlock Holmes stories while another analyzes Ronald Knox's influence on our hobby.  No matter the topic addressed, each essay is an insightful look into a facet of the Sherlockian world, and one that leaves the reader more informed after having read it.


A Scandal in Bohemia: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel by Petr Kopl

Now, for something completely different!  Petr Kopl's colorful take on one of the best Holmes stories is one that will leave you wanting more.  That's good, because there's more in the series!  This graphic novel merges A Scandal in Bohemia with The Speckled Band, and inserts just enough new plot elements to make even an old school Sherlockian wonder what's coming next.  For a quick, fun read, this is the book for you.


Baker Street Beat by Dan Andriacco

Probably more well-known for his McCabe & Cody mystery series, Dan Andriacco's book "Baker Street Beat" is a true delight to read.  The contents of this book vary greatly.  From scholarly essays to scripts for radio plays to short pastiches, Andriacco does it all.  I read this on a car ride down to Texas this summer, and it made the time fly!


The Macdougall Twins Series by Derrick Belanger

Full disclosure: I've only read one of these books.  But to my credit, that's because my fifth graders keep snatching them up!  Derrick Belanger's series is aimed at young readers and introduces Sherlock Holmes to a new generation by using him as a character in a fun series with ten year old twin detectives.  They are a high interest series and although they are targeted to kids, they will bring a smile to the face of Sherlockians of any age.

I May As Well Give Up the Attempt at Once

Before I get started with this week’s blog post, The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street got some nice shout outs recently. Dan Andriacco gave it a next review in his website, and I was interviewed by Derrick Belanger for I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. Alright, I’m done rooting my own horn....


This week found me reading two  books that gave me very different feelings: one loved, and one that I fought and fought until I finally gave up and abandoned it.

The book I loved was Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp This book was the basis for my favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard. It was a fast paced read that was similar enough to the movie to make me smile in recognition, but different enough to keep me wondering what was next.


But this isn’t a blog about Die Hard (but it is the right time of year for that sort of thing....), which brings me to my other book. It was a Sherlockian book that many people have liked. But, man, it didn’t click for me. I am a believer in the idea that there are too many books in the world to read something you don’t want to. I knew early on this book wasn’t a good fit for me, but I kept coming back to it a few times a day for a few days until I finally gave in.

I kept at it because it was a Sherlockian book, and the author cares about this hobby as much as I do. They were very knowledgeable in their research and the book was well written, it just didn’t click for me. Had this book been on another topic and I had the same response, I would’ve bailed after 30 or so pages when I knew it wasn’t working for me.

But I’m willing to give all things Sherlockian the benefit of the doubt. To be honest, I think Sherlock Gnomes looks terrible. Nothing in that trailer looked interesting to me. But I’m excited for it to come out and introduce Holmes to new viewers who may one day become new readers.


There are plenty of other subsets of Sherlockiana that don’t particularly get me excited, but I’m glad they are out there for those people who do enjoy it. This may seem like a negative topic, but I’m happy that whether we are Johnlockers or chronology fanatics, we can all find a common ground in the 60 stories.

And when it comes to being a Sherlockian, as long as you enjoy the canon, welcome to the party, pal!

In His Hours of Relaxation

For we Sherlockians in the states, Thursday marked our annual Thanksgiving holiday.  For me, it also coincided with my 38th birthday, and the release of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street. 


For the last few months, it seems like life has been all about this book and it wasn't even out yet!  To see the listing live on Amazon Thursday morning was surreal.  It has been quite a weekend.  Book release, national holiday, birthday, lots of family time, and I finally finished Stranger Things season 2.  I'm wiped out!

So, this week, it's time to stop and take a breather.  The pre-release publicity is done.  In a few days I'll start back up, but today is a day off. 


I've done interviews for blogs, newspapers, websites and podcasts.  Lots of book signings, speeches, and the pleasure of listening to a book I wrote as an audiobook.  I've even gotten a few good reviews along the way.

But this weekend is about being thankful for what you have.  I'm first and foremost thankful for my family.  But this being a Sherlockian blog, I a definitely thankful for the wonderful Sherlockians I've gotten to know.  Sherlockians on the whole are a good bunch of folks.  And we should all take a second to be thankful that our hobby is made up of some very decent folks that we get to spend out time with.

And if those great people decide to add The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street to their Christmas list?  All the better!

“Light-houses, My Boy! Beacons of the Future!

This week finds me at the end of my favorite part of the school year.  For the past two weeks, I've been teaching about Sherlock Holmes and the mystery genre to my fifth grade class.  Two things I'm passionate and deeply interested in are Sherlock Holmes and education.  For these two weeks, they merge into hours of lessons where my students are engaged and I am in the zone!

I won't go into depth here as to my lesson plans.  If you are interested, they are written in depth on my classroom webpage.  What I want to talk about is the infectious joy that is flowing through my room in relation to the great detective and reading in general right now.


In the past two weeks, we've covered The Blue Carbuncle, The Red-Headed League, The Speckled Band, The Copper Beeches and a Scandal in Belgravia as a whole class.  Most of these stories warranted two days of instruction, one day where the kids read with partners focusing on one or two thematic questions, and the second where we read as a class and discussed particular story elements.


I've been jotting down lines I've heard from kids as they read with their partners:

BLUE: "This must be where the term 'wild goose chase' came from!"

REDH: "Oh, that guy has red hair, too!"

SPEC: "Why in the world would she sleep in there?  This is SO creepy!"

SCAN: "A smoke bomb? This dude is crazy."


I always close the reading unit with A Scandal in Bohemia because it lends itself to such great classroom discussion.  We stop to brainstorm ideas to get the photograph back from Irene Adler which sometimes makes me marvel at how decivious fifth graders can be!  This year, a big debate flared up when I asked if Holmes accomplished his mission at the end of the story.  No matter what side of the debate the students ended up on, they all agreed that Irene Adler came out on top in the whole thing.

But it hasn't just been all reading.  On Monday, the students will perform two plays for the other fifth grade classes based off of The Blue Carbuncle and The Red-Headed League.  Watching these Midwestern kids try to employ British accents is always a hoot.


After watching the trailer for Sherlock Gnomes, we discussed other ways that Sherlock Holmes can be portrayed.  From there, the students started going through a two-week writing process to create their own Sherlock Holmes story.  When I first announced the project to them, the kids were audibly excited to write!

And these stories are really good.  Some of them are great mysteries.  Others have a five year-old Holmes investigating a robbery at a candy store, and another has Holmes fighting a ninja.  (It's titled Sherlock Holmes Fights a Ninja).  After discussing the elements to the mystery genre, the only requirements I gave students were that they had to have specific story elements found in most mysteries and that there had to be a character named Sherlock Holmes in their story.


What I got for their finished products were so different and fun, I actually woke my wife up while I was reading a story one night because I was laughing at it so hard.  This particular story has Holmes investigating a robbery from an Egyptian pyramid by a villain named Egypt Ian (that's great!).  He resurrects King Tut, Holmes foils the plan, Egypt Ian gives a long explanation why he did it, and King Tut just shrugs his shoulders, and answers "Meh."

Do I expect all 26 of my students to become ardent Sherlockians after this unit?  Absolutely not.  From a purely educational standpoint, I expect them to have a better grasp of story structure, the writing process and reading fluency.  But, hey, if they pick up a copy of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to read over Thanksgiving break, who am I to stop them?