• Complete, ready to use!
• Book included inside the course!
• Makes reading fun!
• Develops literacy, vocabulary!
• Introduces some history, geography!
• Develops critical thinking!

I taught a literature class in my homeschool co-op using two Steps Literature Guides, Sherlock Holmes stories and The Time Machine. The Literature Guides are very easy to use. The lesson structure made scheduling and assigning homework very simple. We used the lesson questions to stimulate class discussion and I was impressed with the contributions that the students made during class. I look forward to continuing to use Steps products!  L.F., Homeschool Teacher
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"Elementary, my dear Watson..."

For over 120 years, his name and that of "detective" have been one and the same in the imagination of hundreds of millions of readers and fans. The character Sherlock Holmes has appeared in more movies, plays, radio shows, and entertainments than any other in all of literature! As created and authored by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle starting in 1889 and in some 55 stories, Holmes and his ever-faithful associate Dr. Watson have been constant companions in our search for an understanding of the sometimes mad and dangerous world we live in.

Here's a complete guide that will help your student, ages 9-adult, understand three of Conan Doyle's works, as few readers ever do. Included are:

• A Scandal In Bohemia
• The Red-Headed League
• The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The stories are included in the guide, so you won’t need to hunt them down.

The history of the period of time is explained, so that the student understands why Conan Doyle wrote as he did, and what he was trying to say to his readers about their time (and ours). Doyle's history is also explored, and the student relates what he's learned about the writer's life to the stories, and how Doyle's own experience (as a doctor and even as a crime fighter) helped him to create his great works. The history of his books, their publishing success, is considered.

Important tools of writing are explored and explained, such as the message of a piece (the idea the author wishes to communicate), plotting, characterization, conflict, language, irony, and the use of surrogate characters in the stories representing the author and his views. The student then uses his knowledge of the tools of good story-telling to analyze and understand the story.

No additional materials are needed. The entire text for every story is contained in the course. Before reading each tale, the student looks though the simple, single definition that applies for every key or difficult word used in that chapter. This will allow the student to understand what he reads the first time he reads it. ( WARNING – This course does require some serious literacy. ) Locations mentioned in each chapter are also listed before the reading starts, and they are located by the student on maps or globes. In this way, the student will know where those places are in the world when encountering them in the story.

After each large reading section, the student is provided numerous exercises which demand cognitive and critical thinking on the student's part. The exercises help make the story more relevant to the student, and increase his understanding of the story and its unique values.

We even provide some links to film and/or other presentations of the pieces being studied!

This is a complete study guide, one that will bring these works to life, and which should help interest the student in literature, and in the immortal character that made detective stories and intelligence "cool" – Sherlock Holmes! The game's afoot!