My friend’s daughter wants some books for her birthday. I want to introduce her to mysteries. I’m looking for something like Sherlock Holmes. You know, the little intro where Holmes deduces amazing things about people with a glance but also if you are paying enough attention, you can figure out what is going on.
Is Nancy Drew like that? Are there any kid’s mysteries like that?
The Encyclopedia Brown books come to mind.
The Hardy Boys series is good, but why not the original Holmes books?
The kid’s vocabulary will improve.
Seconded. I loved those books when I was a kid.
She’s a little young IMO (not that I know squat about children) for SH. I was thinking I would hook her on mysteries first, then maybe introduce her to SH in a few years.
If she’s eleven or twelve and a good reader, she’s ready for Sherlock Holmes. I’ve seen editions of selected Sherlock Holmes stories that are packaged for kids of that age.
Get hold of abridged versions of Holmes stories. That would be suitable for kids below 12 IMHO.
What grade level is she reading at? The Sherlock Holmes stories contain 19th century vocabulary and syntax that may befuddle the young reader below junior high school. But if you go with Holmes, a starter might be “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”
I’d be very wary of this, considering how many abridgements for children of classic stories are absolute travesties. If she’s not ready for the real thing, I’d rather she wait until she is.
The Encyclopedia Brown books are the first thing that came to my mind, too, and really the only “kids’ books” I can think of that have a strong “deduces amazing things about people with a glance but also if you are paying enough attention, you can figure out what is going on” element to them. But then, it’s been a while since I was a kid.
If you go here you can search the Mystery Writer’s Association for every book nominated for an Edgar as best Best Young Adult Fiction or Best Juvenile Fiction. And any othercategory you care to name.
To echo everyone else, Encyclopedia Brown is Sherlock Holmes for kids. I was obsessed with those books in elementary school, along with Two-Minute Mysteries, which are by the same author.
My sixth grade reader also included Poe. The C. Auguste Dupin stories like “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” are direct precursors to Holmes.
If you want to start with the real Holmes, my suggestion would be to start with a short-story like “The Red-Head League,” since the crime is robbery rather than murder…
Not only that, but in some stories Holmes is depicted shooting cocaine, which a kid would not be able to understand in context. I sure didn’t.
Personally, I found books from the McGurk series entertaining right up through middle school.
Are the Clue? books still around? I seem to remember liking them when I was young, but I don’t know if they were really all that good…!!! It could be fun to package that with the boardgame, if she doesn’t already have it, or maybe one of the game extensions (do they still sell those?) if she does!
According to the The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes… Holmes is seen using cocaine in only 2 cases, “The Sign of Four” and “A Scandal in Bohemia”.
Some of the stories have nastier elements, like the fate of Charles Augustus Milverton in The Adventure of…. There are collections of Holmes stories suitable for pre-adults.
Plus you’ve got Watson ejaculating in every other paragraph.
That’s just what I was going to suggest. As a matter of fact, my wife once led a summer reading group for some 10-year-old neighborhood girls, and “The Red-Headed League” was one of the stories they read. She had to help them with some of the vocabulary, but it was a good intro to SH for them.
I can remember my fifth-grade teacher reading SH stories to us during breaks, and I loved 'em.
The Jeremy Brett TV adaptations are also excellent, and most of them can be enjoyed by a smart preteen.
A hearty second. Is the entire canton available on DVD?
I will also second, third, fourth or whatever Encyclopedia Brown. Loved 'em growing up.
And another vote for Poe’s mysteries, oh, about grade 11 or 12 if she is a real bookworm. That dude could write, well above most 21st century readers’ ability to read.
Oslo Ostragoth writes:
> And another vote for Poe’s mysteries, oh, about grade 11 or 12 if she is a real
> bookworm.
I assume you mean “about age 11 or 12 if she is a real bookworm.” At grade 11 or 12 for a bookworm, Poe isn’t very hard. At age 11 or 12 for a bookworm, Poe is possible.
And I presume you don’t mean “Is the entire canton available on DVD?” but rather “Is the entire canon available on DVD?”. Proofread.