chocolate-chip chooky Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 (edited) I'd like to read some Arthur Conan Doyle with my 10 yr old. Any suggestions for suitable short stories to begin with? Thanks :001_smile: Edited March 20, 2017 by chocolate-chip chooky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 See, I'd have to start from the beginning, so the dc would understand how and when and why it became Holmes and Watson. :-) So that would first be "A Study in Scarlet," then "The Sign of the Four," then "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purduemeche Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Semi-related idea...Jim Weiss has a wonderful Sherlock Holmes CD for kids that contains some of the more famous stories. https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Children-Jim-Weiss/dp/1882513355 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 (edited) JMO: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the collection that has the most stories that are likely to connect well with a first-time reader or first-time exposure as a read-aloud. These stories especially: - "The Red-Headed League" - "A Scandal in Bohemia" - "The Blue Carbuncle" - "The Speckled Band" Also, that is the earliest of the short story collections, so that's a good one to start with, as it takes place earlier in his career. As Ellie said above, there are 2 novels that precede Adventures -- A Study in Scarlet, and, The Sign of the Four, which establish the characters and Holmes' method of deduction, but I think it's fine to just jump in with short stories, too, especially if you're not sure how the Victorian language / sentence structure / culture is going to go over... Short stories allow you to "build up" stamina, rather than feeling locked into trudging through a longer work. ;) All of the Sherlock Holmes works are available to read online, with lots of link options at the Sherlockian website. Depending on the age of your student, perhaps a go-along book would be fun: - The Enola Holmes mysteries (Springer) -- gr. 5-8 - The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (Newman) -- gr. 6-8 (and sequels by Newman) - Sherlock Academy (Shaw) -- gr. 5-7 - The Great Mouse Detective -- and sequels (Titus) -- gr. 3-5 Whatever you start with, hope you both enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori D. Edited February 5, 2017 by Lori D. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 You folks are fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Thanks heaps! We'll start with a short story (as you said, Lori, we may need to build up stamina for this style of writing). I've printed out The Speckled Band. We'll see how we go! If my daughter (10yrs old) enjoys it, then I think I'll go with Ellie's plan of starting from the beginning. I like the look of Newman's books, so I'll order the first of those if my daughter takes to all of this. And thanks for the link to the CD - I'll be keeping that in mind, too. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 I just wanted to pop in here again and thank you all for your help last month. We are loving our Sherlock Holmes short stories and we're about to embark on the first novel now too. My daughter's favourite so far is The Three Students. Have any of you studied Conan Doyle with your children? If so, do you have any recommendations of good biographies as read-alouds? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rush Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Have any of you studied Conan Doyle with your children? If so, do you have any recommendations of good biographies as read-alouds? Great suggestions! Thank you! My eldest loves Sherlock Holmes too :hurray: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 She is thrilled because we just got the audiobooks from Audible of all the novels and many (all?) the short stories for only one credit - bargain! Still looking for ideas for good biographies on Conan Doyle. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raptor_dad Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Have any of you studied Conan Doyle with your children? If so, do you have any recommendations of good biographies as read-alouds? Ironically, the uber-rationalist traits I admire in Sherlock make me hesitant to study his creator. Conan-Doyle was a gullible boob at best in many ways. Being taken in wholeheartedly by the Edwardian/Victorian spiritualist craze is really quite discouraging. I'd prefer to engage with Sherlock without any study of Conan Doyle. That said, I like Doyle as a writer and his other works like his proto-scifi "Lost World", one inspiration for Jurassic Park, are great. An author study would undoubtedly be interesting. I just wouldn't tie it too close to Sherlock Holmes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Ironically, the uber-rationalist traits I admire in Sherlock make me hesitant to study his creator. Conan-Doyle was a gullible boob at best in many ways. Being taken in wholeheartedly by the Edwardian/Victorian spiritualist craze is really quite discouraging. I'd prefer to engage with Sherlock without any study of Conan Doyle. That said, I like Doyle as a writer and his other works like his proto-scifi "Lost World", one inspiration for Jurassic Park, are great. An author study would undoubtedly be interesting. I just wouldn't tie it too close to Sherlock Holmes. My daughter (nearly 11) loves learning about the quirky lives of these types of people. They're real. They're not perfect. They had some odd ideas mixed in with their brilliant ones eg Newton and his alchemy and occultish stuff Discovering that Conan Doyle was a gullible boob would probably tickle her fancy :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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