Two very different versions of a young Sherlock

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This article was published 19/11/2011 (5385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE seems to be a trend to explore the early years of famous literary figures. Two authors have focused on Sherlock Holmes.

In The Dragon Turn (Tundra, 240 pages, $22 hardcover), Ontario writer Shane Peacock delivers another intriguing novel exploring the boy detective, while U.K. author Andrew Lane gives us a different version in Young Sherlock Holmes: Red Leech (MacMillan, 339 pages, $13 paperback).

Peacock’s version is the more convincing. His Sherlock is a penniless but resourceful young man living with an eccentric apothecary who encourages his curiosity and his powers of observation. In The Dragon Turn, he attempts to unravel the mystery of a magician’s illusion, which has apparently caused the death of a rival magician.

Lane, on the other hand, depicts Sherlock as belonging to a wealthy family on an English country estate. However, Young Sherlock Holmes is set mainly in America, as Sherlock follows conspirators in the plot to kill President Abraham Lincoln. While Lane’s account is advertised as “the first version authorized by the Conan Doyle estate,” the Canadian-made Sherlock has a real feeling for Victorian London.

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Award-winning Toronto young adult novelist Kenneth Oppel has chosen to examine the early years of Victor Frankenstein in his latest book, This Dark Endeavour (HarperCollins, 298 pages, $20 hardcover).

Sixteen-year-old Victor lives with his twin brother, Konrad, and their lovely cousin, Elizabeth, in a luxurious mansion. He is insanely jealous of Konrad and Elizabeth’s love for each other.

But when Konrad becomes dangerously ill, Victor risks his life to obtain the ingredients for a secret recipe that promises the elixir of life. With frightening passages and suggestions of diabolic influence, Dark Endeavour seems tailor-made for the big screen. The movie rights reportedly have been bought by the producers of the Twilight series.

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For more contemporary adventure, teens will enjoy Running to Extremes: Ray Zahab’s Amazing Ultramarathon Journey by Steve Pitt and Ray Zahab (Penguin, 112 pages, $13 paperback).

Ray Zahab, of Kanata, Ont., is a formerly troubled young man who found meaning to his life through ultramarathon runs: in the Yukon, on the Sahara, in South America. An ultramarathon is a race in which the participants cover a total of several marathons in a day. Zahab’s accounts of the hardships he endured and overcome are truly amazing and inspiring.

For a fictional account try the companion book, Just Deserts, by Eric Walters with Ray Zahab (Penguin, 273 pages, $13 paperback), which makes his trials into an exciting story.

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Meanwhile, Toronto artist Barbara Reid has created another amazing picture book in Picture a Tree (North Winds, 32 pages, $20 hardcover). Reid is able to use plasticine the way some painters use oils, creating expressions and body language as well as riotous colours and textures.

Reid begins by saying “There is more than one way to picture a tree.” Then she explores all the ways we enjoy trees: as canopies, homes for birds and animals, for climbing, for playing in, and simply for their beauty.

In this tribute to the UN’s International Year of Forests, Reid gives us veritable love story to trees, even with gorgeous end papers depicting them in every conceivable state and time of year. For art lovers and early readers aged three to six.

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Ontario writer Nan Forler and artist Peter Etril Snyder have teamed up to create an unusual picture book, Winterberries and Apple Blossoms (Tundra, 40 pages, $25 hardcover). Subtitled Reflections and Flavors of a Mennonite Year, it gives us a poem and a full-page watercolour picture for each month of the year. The poems and images reflect the family values, simplicity and spiritual qualities of traditional Mennonite life.

This book is aimed at older children (ages six to 12) but would be appreciated by anyone with a fondness for traditional values or exceptional art work.

Winnipegger Helen Norrie is a former teacher-librarian.