These relatively short and fast-paced novels for middle-grade readers cover a time period of one year from Enola’s fourteenth to fifteenth birthday.  And what a year it was!  During that time we follow Enola, always in disguise, through the streets, back alleys, sewers, and even on roof-tops of nineteenth century London.  The first person narrative with abundant historical detail allows one to experience this unique time and place from the perspective of one of the most remarkable and likeable heroines that I have ever encountered.  In each novel the author has been careful to bring the reader up to date so that they can be enjoyed independently.  However, for the full effect of the tension and suspense of the subplots, I would recommend reading them in order if possible.

Enola’s adventures continue in the following Enola Holmes Mysteries listed in order of publication.  You can enjoy them as books or audiobooks.

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady:  Posing as the secretary for the world’s first scientific perditorian (one who uses logic and scientific method to find missing persons), Enola sets out to find Lady Cecily who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets:  Using her ample wits and knowledge of the language of flowers, Enola seeks to save Dr. Watson from a fate worse than death at the hands of a deranged former patient.

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan:   An odd and out-of-place pink fan is the first clue in another sinister plot involving the tormented Lady Cecily.

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline:  As if searching for her mother and eluding her brothers wasn’t enough, Enola returns to her rooms one day to find that the closest thing she has to family – her dear, sweet landlady, Mrs. Tupper,  has been kidnapped.

The Case of the Gypsy Good-bye:  While Enola pursues the trail of the missing Lady Blanchefleur del Campo, Sherlock and Mycroft follow close behind with a message from their mother that only Enola can decipher.

Gardening is a great way for the whole family to work and learn together, and the Children’s Library can help you get started.  We have many helpful books (j 635 in the non-fiction section) with topics ranging from preparing soil and composting to growing fruits and vegetables.  Special projects for every season are also featured.   Learn how to build a bird house, make a rain gauge, attract butterflies, and much, much more.

Below are just a few of the titles that can help you get started:

101 Kid-Friendly Plants by Cindy Krezel features 101 common plants that are safe to eat and simple to grow plus more seasonal activities and science projects.

Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole is a beautifully illustrated book for younger readers that shows the evolution of a garden from early spring to late summer.

The Kids Can Press Jumbo Book of Gardening by Karyn Morris includes many great gardening activities plus sections devoted to native plants, wildlife gardens, and community and school gardens.

Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: a Compost Story by Linda Glaser uses photographs to show how one family works together to turn their table and yard scraps into rich, dark soil for the garden.

When I was growing up I drew almost constantly.  Peanuts comics and Mad Magazine were always close at hand and I never went anywhere without paper, pencil, and eraser.  The walls of my room were covered with drawings.  I spent hours going through comic books, carefully copying (not tracing) my favorite characters and creating my own stories.  Eventually, I sought out ways to improve my skills by poring over the few “how to draw” books available to me at the time.  Fortunately, the non-fiction section of the Children’s Area at the Lawrence Library offers a much larger selection of “how to draw” and related books.

These popular books (j 741.2 in the children’s non-fiction collection) teach the materials, concepts, techniques, and good habits needed to achieve a professional look and personal style.  In Drawing: the only drawing book you’ll ever need to be the artist you’ve always wanted to be by Kathryn Temple one can learn about light and shadow, perspective, proportion and scale, as well as many tips and tricks that can help take one’s art to the next level.  Many books such as Mark Kistler’s Imagination Station , provide step-by-step illustrations showing the evolution of a drawing from a simple gestural sketch to the finished product.

Other books like How to Draw Superheroes  by Jim Hansen and John Burns and How to Draw Pokemon by Tracy West focus on specific styles or characters popular today. Nearby the ‘How to draw” books one will find general interest books on art and the works of popular cartoonists like Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate), Jim Davis (Garfield), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), and Charles Schultz  (Peanuts).  And don’t forget our Graphic Novel (j GN)  section near the children’s computers where hundreds of characters from Babymouse to Zeus are waiting to inspire you.

The Dangerous Book for Boys by brothers Conn and Hall Iggulden is a guide book for boys “from eight to eighty” that challenges the reader to “recapture Sunday afternoons and long summer days.” Though clearly inspired by what passes for play in the high-tech lives of many boys these days, this book can be a valuable resource for all members of the family. It recalls an earlier day when curious, adventure-seeking children spent more time outdoors actively involved in hands-on projects and make-believe: when cuts, scrapes and the occasional broken bone rarely resulted in litigation.

Sturdily bound and with an old-fashioned look and feel it is truly a treasure trove of activities and information. The seemingly random organization encourages the reader to flip through the pages discovering something new and exciting with every turn. The eighty-five short and accessible chapters range from inspirational to practical to just plain fun. One can learn about history’s great battles, famous explorations, and the mysteries of the universe. There are instructions for tying a good knot, building a tree house, and building a soapbox racer. Of course, as in any good guide book for boys, paper airplanes, water bombs, secret codes, and invisible inks are included.

There is even a thoughtful section on girls – my favorite is #1: “It is important to listen. Human beings are often very self-centered and like to talk about themselves. In addition, it’s an easy subject if someone is nervous. It is good advice to listen closely – unless she has also been given this advice, in which case an uneasy silence could develop, like two owls sitting together.” The entries are long enough to be informative and useful, but short enough to hold one’s interest. Readers are encouraged to keep trying, build upon their mistakes and successes, and to seek more detailed information in the areas that interest them the most.

A unique combination of The Books of Knowledge, Boy’s Life, and other publications currently out of print, The Dangerous Book for Boys would certainly have had a special place on my bookshelf – right alongside my gyroscope, horseshoe magnet, giant acorn, and skipping stones.

You may also want to check out The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz.

As chance would have it, I discovered the works of E. Nesbit while browsing the works of Edgar Eager in search of some good summer reading.  Over the next few months I was introduced to some of the most innovative, charming and genuinely funny children’s novels I have read to date.

Edith Nesbit was born outside of London in 1858.  Her father died when she was very young and her mother took over the family business (the absent parent and the working mother will be important themes throughout her career).   A writer from an early age, Nesbit was first published when she was only fifteen.  Later, as a young mother, she supported her family when her husband fell ill by writing short stories, articles, and poems – much like the young mother in her 1906 novel The Railway Children.  Unconventional and outspoken, she devoted most of her time to social causes until her writing career took off in 1899 with the publication of The Story of the Treasure Seekers:  Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune.

What Nesbit had done was introduce a new way of writing for and about children:  siblings having recently moved to a new home or on holiday in the country search for ways to amuse themselves.  On their own and unsupervised, the imaginative and well-intentioned children manage to get in and out of all kinds of mischief, quarrelling with one another along the way as real children do, but in the end coming together and learning important life-lessons in the process.

Her greatest and most influential contribution was yet to come.  In Five Children and It (1902) magic was added to the formula.  Siblings exploring a gravel pit near their new home uncover the Psammead (pronounced Sammyadd), an ancient Sand-fairy comfortably asleep for millions of years who now reluctantly (and rather grumpily) agrees to grant the children one wish per day.  What ensues is a series of hilarious misadventures that give new meaning to the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.”  The adventures, in what became a trilogy, continue in The Phoenix and the Carpet and conclude with The Story of the Amulet.  Previously, there were two types of fantasy adventures for children.  In one the story takes place from beginning to end in a distinct and separate fantasy-land as in Snow White.  In the other the children travel to a distant magical world as in Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz.  Not  long ago or far away, the magic now resided in the everyday lives of ordinary children, creating limitless possibilities not only for Nesbit, but for scores of authors who followed her.