2 Questions rergarding kids/teenagers books

[gerry]

1.After watching the South Bank Show special on Boxing Day regarding the Real Mary Poppins.I didn't know that there had been a few Mary Poppins books.Can anyone tell me if there was a sequal to the movie in book format or where these just 1 off stories?.

2. My second question is for christmas there i got The Complete Sherlock Holmes in Paperback.My cousin who is in his early teens loves Sherlock Holmes but he would probably get bored with the version i have because the story goes into more description than action.Is there a version of The Complete Sherlock Holmes aimed just for kids/teenagers or even a Sherlock Holmes book with short stories aimed at kids/teenagers.

[Peter Pedant]

Let the child decide Gerry

Give him the book and say that it may or may not be too advanced for him. That will surelyget him to read thebook and you mayfind that youwill have to as well.

Conan Doyle was writing in 1890s and the English is not looked on as difficult or hard.

Attaboy and then follow it up with some Dickens - which we were reading at 12 or Austen which we were also reading at 12

[maxi29]

I'm a bit baffled as to how someone could 'love Sherlock Holmes' and yet find the stories boring. I started reading the Holmes stories when I was about 12 and was engrossed in them. I reckon that the early teens is exactly the right age to discover them.

There aren't any shorter versions of the stories - they're pretty short anyway.

[LeMarchand]

As for Mary Poppins, the first sequel was written in 1935 - some time before the film was made! The order is:

• Mary Poppins (1934)
• Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)
• Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1944)
• Mary Poppins In the Park (1952)
• Mary Poppins From A to Z (alphabet book) (1962)
• Mary Poppins In Cherry Tree Lane (1982)
• Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (1988)
• Mary Poppins In the Kitchen: A Cookery book with a Story (1991)

I haven't read them, but believe that the "proper" books feature the same family.

[Kingaroo]

re Mary Poppins--
I read them as a child, and in my recollection, she went to a different family in each book, flying off hooked to her umbrella when the time was right.

Walt Disney is no proper guardian of his literary sources -- you will find MANY differences between the books, written between the world wars, and the movie made in the perky bubbly sixties.

[Kingaroo]

re Sherlock Holmes
I was a pretty good reader as a kid, but I too read all the stories at age 11 or 12. I had a rather elaborate fantasy of being a female Watson.
If your cousin is not familiar with 19th century writing, read a story to him/her and see if some coaching over the vocabulary or references is needed.
A younger child in the US could get ahold of the Great Illustrated Classics version, but it doesn't have the charm and detail of the original. Still, understanding the story does help timid readers navigate through difficult language. I'm all for editing Shakespeare and Bible stories and the like for children, so they'll welcome the added richness of the original... if they're that sort of reader.