Tracy Mack & Michael Citron
Authors of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars
MICHAEL: Until I was eleven years old, I had hardly ever picked up a book, and certainly not willingly. I was the kind of kid who spent most of his waking hours in front of the television set, or playing after school sports (I didn't do this willingly either, but that's another story)*. But that same year (sixth grade), my father gave me his Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it changed my life.
When my father was a young man, he suffered from polio. For the year or so that he spent in the hospital, he received many books (reading being his sole form of entertainment). After he returned home, he labeled all of the books he'd received in the hospital-including The Complete Sherlock Holmes-"THE POLIO COLLECTION." A friend once told me that the books you read when you're ill stay with you for life. That was definitely the case with my father. Even though it had been years since he'd read the Sherlock Holmes stories, he could still talk in detail with me about them as I read them for the first time. Since my father couldn't play sports, this bond through reading was especially meaningful-and the Sherlock Holmes stories became a language of connection for us. Sherlock Holmes was also my introduction to literature. I became so obsessed with the master detective and his methods that I began collecting Sherlockiana, even going so far as attempting to recreate his famous sitting room at 221 B Baker Street in the basement of our house. From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I went on to discover other mystery writers, such as Edgar Allen Poe, G.K. Chesterton, Dashell Hammet, and Raymond Chandler, and eventually writers of other genres. That same couch potato kid who'd read nothing but the TV Guide ultimately became a writing major in college.
The one thing that always bothered me about the original Sherlock Holmes stories is that while Holmes's partner, Watson (the narrator of the stories), acknowledges a gang of street urchins who assist Holmes in his cases, the Baker Street Irregulars are mentioned only four times in the whole cannon of sixty stories. As a kid, I'd wondered a lot about these boys who Holmes refers to as his "eyes and ears on the street." If they'd been so instrumental in helping Holmes solve his cases, why weren't they given more credit?
TRACY: Growing up, I wanted to be Harriet the Spy. So much so that I started my own spy club called Rat Fink, which consisted of me and occasionally my babysitter, who I wrangled into my schemes. Like Harriet, I would skulk around the neighborhood, spying on the neighbors and taking copious notes. I was also a liar. One of my favorite pastimes was trying to convince my friend, Carol, that another girl on our block and I were actually twins but just happened to live with different families. (Carol remains one of my dearest friends today, which is still a mystery to me and says much more about her character than mine, but that's another story.)** Since then, a writer friend told me that writers make up lies to tell a larger truth. I'm certain that's what I was doing back then. (A prize to the clever reader who can tell me what larger truth I was getting at.)
The house I grew up in was very loud. I have two older brothers who are both musicians, and who both had band-mates jamming in our basement seemingly round the clock. I would flee to my bedroom or to the great limbs of one of the many trees that framed our house and disappear into a book. Reading became my refuge. My mom is a huge reader, and she fed me, at an early age, the Bobbsey Twins (some of her favorites), Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, and lots of other great books and characters. That was my first introduction to mysteries. I loved trying to solve the puzzles the characters faced; I loved the adventures; and, because my mom read aloud to me for a very long time (yes, even in high school), I loved this connection we shared through books.
I eventually moved on to some fantasy and later, realistic fiction, which remains the heart and soul of my reading and writing. But I'll never forget the excitement for reading that mysteries first instilled in me or the thrill of deciphering a clue or discovering a new concept (reasoning) for the first time.
TRACY & MICHAEL: A shared love of literature and stories first brought us together and continues to be a powerful language of connection for us in our marriage, as well as with our young daughter. For years, it's been a dream of ours to collaborate creatively on a book. And because mysteries excited and ignited us both when we were young, that seemed like the right place to start. We hope that you have as much fun reading Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, Casebook No. 1: The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas as we've had writing it, and that you'll want to share it with a young person in your life. Who knows, maybe he or she will grow up to be a Sherlockian or a really good liar. Happy reading!
Contributor: Scholastic
Reviews
Birdland
Tracy Mack
Thirteen-year-old Jed is seeking live-action video footage of New York's East Village, but in no time he finds himself chasing down a different layer of story altogether. Lines from his dead brother Zeke's poetry haunt this journey, evoking the rawness of uninvited memories and an unacknowledged guilt. Mack's swirling views of a restless city constitute both backdrop and context for Jed's grief. The changing energies of New York--water towers and sidewalks, cafes and the blinking on of evening lights--are rendered all the more real because we encounter them through the lens of the young protagonist's emerging consciousness. Here is a family unable to face the wrenching failure that Zeke's death represents to each of them, in a city that is itself coming to terms with the meaning of healing. That connection is commendably understated. The wound on the skyline is simply there, a reflection of an empty place at a table. Mack's handling of the toddler's response (play followed by an easy forgetting), is poignant and believable precisely because it is light and glancing. Jed's video-search for the city's heart slowly begins to untangle the threads of a diverse array of themes, as the tensions come together in the person of the homeless girl, Kiki. Other surprises both delight and comfort--the homage paid to emergent childhood literacy through Alice and The Carrot Seed; the power of community; and the strains of Charlie Parker from which the title is derived. Most of all this is a story about the resilience of life, that sometimes halts in a desperate stutter, but then re-gathers and goes forward, stubbornly refusing to cease. 2003, Scholastic, $16.95 and $5.99. Ages 9 up. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
Best Books for Young Adults, 2004; American Library Association-YALSA; United States
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2004; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Booklist Book Review Stars, Oct. 15, 2003; United States
The Children's Literature Choice List, 2004; Children's Literature; United States
Choices, 2004; Cooperative Children's Book Center; United States
Editors' Choice: Books for Youth, 2003; American Library Association-Booklist; United States
Kirkus Book Review Stars, September 15, 2003; United States
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Ninth Edition, 2005; H.W. Wilson; United States
Middle and Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Eighth Edition, 2004, 2004; H.W. Wilson; United States
State and Provincial Reading Lists:
Maine Student Book Award, 2004-2005; Nominee; Maine
Sequoyah Book Award, 2006; Nominee; Young Adult; Oklahoma
ISBN: 0-439-53590-5
ISBN: 978-0-439-53590-8
ISBN: 0-439-53591-3
ISBN: 978-0-439-53591-5
Drawing Lessons
Tracy Mack
As Rory prepares to enter the new world of seventh grade and junior high, events at home precipitate another kind of crisis. Her much adored artist father decamps from studio and family to find himself. Rory, a budding artist in her own right, retreats from her best friend, her mother, and most significantly, from her art. Using the metaphor of a strong tree rotten at the core, the author paints a subtle picture of a family searching for stronger roots. Mack's first novel is another divorce-theme story, but it is delicately and tenderly approached. Her knowledge of the mindset and techniques of artists adds immensely to its ambience. 2000, Scholastic, $4.99. Ages 10 to 14. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr (Children's Literature).
Best Books:
The Best Children's Books of the Year, 2001; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Middle And Junior High School Library Catalog, Supplement to the Eighth Edition, 2001; H.W. Wilson; United States
Top 10 Youth First Novels, 2000; American Library Association-Booklist; United States
State and Provincial Reading Lists:
Charlotte Book Awards, 2002; Nominee; Young Adult; New York
ISBN: 0-439-11203-6
ISBN: 978-0-439-11203-1
The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas: Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, Casebook No. 1
Tracy Mack and Michael Citron
Fortune-tellers, murders, a world-famous detective, the Prince of Wales, missing jewels, the circus, a villain with the delicious name of Orlando Vile, a band of brave street urchins and we are off on an exciting adventure to solve a crime or two in Victorian London. The Baker Street Irregulars, who first helped Sherlock Holmes solve the case in A Study in Scarlett, take the spotlight from Holmes and Watson here and manage to give the famed detective the information he needs to take the credit for recovering stolen jewels and unraveling the mystery at hand. Ozzie, Wiggins, Stitch, Elf, Rohan, and their cohorts are introduced as abandoned children who have become a family and whose natural common sense and love of adventure save the day. Extras include a listing of the cast of characters, a cockney slang dictionary with pronunciation help, and chapters on the science of deduction and the art of disguise. A secret message embedded in the text is a treat for budding cryptologists and reveals a wonderful gift to the solver. The solution of the mystery will keep readers guessing and may entice some to investigate Sherlock Holmes and the original Irregulars in Conan Doyle's stories. 2006, Orchard Books/Scholastic, $16.99. Ages 8 to 12. Reviewer: Jane Jessell (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 0-439-82836-8
ISBN: 978-0-439-82836-9
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, we first meet the Baker Street Irregulars as Watson describes them with amusement: "six dirty little scoundrels stood in a line like so many disreputable statuettes." Holmes adds, "The mere sight of an official-looking person seals men's lips. These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organization." Consider this book from Mack (Birdland) and Citrin as the organizing of this lovely band of ruffians. In homage to tradition, the story is told in first person by someone other than the protagonist. It is not Watson, however, but an anonymous narrator who seems admiring of Holmes and dismissive of Watson. A circus accident opens the book. Well, the good Inspector Lestrade thinks it's an accident, but what does he know? Holmes considers the problem, but it's the Irregulars the reader is drawn to as they circle the scene of the crime, demonstrating the sleuthing abilities we always knew they had. Examples of setting and context abound; for example, the band skewering potatoes around a fire pit, and scenes explicating Holmes's gifts of deduction and penchant for disguises. Elliot's facility with needle and thread, the leadership of Wiggins, Ozzie's careful and expert forgeries-these and other touches bring the Irregulars into focus as individuals. Rohan the gentle giant, personifies the colonial connection. Wait, though. Is he of Punjabi or Bengali heritage? The conflation is mildly jarring. Nevertheless, his placement in the story, like that of Pilar the fortune-teller's daughter, brings the genre of Baker Street homage fiction into postmodern mode. In places the narrative feels driven by authorial intent, and the writing is occasionally overwrought. Even so, there is enough in this book to draw young readers to the canon, including the witty concealment of an encoded message in the text. Greg Ruth's atmospheric illustrations, period endpapers, and the "Facts and Practicals" in the back matter, enhance the presentation. Part of the "Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars" series. 2006, Orchard Books, Ages 9 to 12, $16.99. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 0-439-82836-8
ISBN: 978-0-439-82836-9
Updated 09/29/06
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