Beacon Society News and Links

Why read Sherlock Holmes today?

This year each Jan Stauber Grant will provide up to $350 to fund the development of a project that will introduce young people to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about his famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

We invite US and Canadian teachers, librarians, Sherlockian literary societies, and others to apply for the Beacon Society's major funding project. Applications and reports from previous winners are available on the Jan Stauber Grant page. The grant period will be from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.

Shannon Carlisle, accelerated learning teacher at Moore Elementary school in Franklin, Tennessee is this year's Beacon Award winner. Mrs. Carlisle is known as the “Chief Sherlockian” in her school where she introduces 4th graders to the stories about Sherlock Holmes and his use of deductive reasoning.

The Beacon Award consists of a certificate and, since 2011, a check for $221. The announcement was made in New York at the Annual Meeting of the Beacon Society during the Sherlock Holmes Birthday Weekend, held each January.

If you're thinking of a nominee for next year, review the nomination form here, and note that you cannot nominate yourself.

We help teachers and librarians use the literature of Sherlock Holmes to engage kids in the pleasures of reading. We're a not-for-profit scion of the Baker Street Irregulars, providing resources that bring the magic of Sherlock Holmes to life in the classroom.

Each year, our Jan Stauber Grants help local teachers and librarians develop Sherlock Holmes teaching units in their schools. We also give Beacon Awards to people or groups who have made an outstanding contribution toward the Beacon Society’s mission.

We provide over $2000 for grants and awards each year, but we'd love to support more programs. If you'd like to help, please make a tax-deductible donation here on our website. We accept PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. Security is guaranteed by PayPal, the company that handles our online account.

Baker Street Irregular Sally Sugarman has compiled a reading list for young people who may not be quite ready for Arthur Conan Doyle or may want to explore contemporary mysteries with youthful detectives. Professor Sugarman retired from Bennington College where she taught Childhood Studies for thirty-five years. She is currently teaching Literature for Children and Popular Culture in America for Johnson State College and Community College of Vermont. We are most grateful that her love of teaching and Sherlock Holmes have come together for the Beacon Society.

Bill Dorn won the 2012 Beacon Award, and now his 2-volume set of Study Guides to Sherlock Holmes has been converted to e-books by the publisher, BSDP! Copies are now available free of charge to members of the Beacon Society. Contact the Beacon Head Light, Susan Diamond, who will either confirm your membership or sign you up (membership is free). Once you're officially on board, Susan will get you in touch with the publisher, George Vanderburgh of BSDB, who will email you the (electronic) Study Guides. Thanks, George!

A Case Study of The Red-Headed League has been developed by Professor Marino Alvarez. This ambitious project includes PDF files for Teacher and Student Guides with concept maps, visual literacy guides and thematic organizers. There's an illustrated copy of the story with questions for each section, too. Thank you, Professor Alvarez!

We are excited about meeting Maria Konnikova, a Scientific American Guest Blogger whose series "Lessons from Sherlock Holmes" appeared from August to November 2011. She is from New York City and is currently a doctoral candidate in psychology at Columbia University. Her first book, inspired by her blog posts, has just been published by Viking/Penguin.

The Beacon Society is now on Facebook! We have joined several other Sherlockian groups on Facebook. Drop by, "friend" us, and tell us what you'd like to see.

Sherlockians enjoy developing teaching materials and sharing them with others. Look through contributions from Beacon Society members and supporters.

Jan Stauber Grant Winners 2012

Sherlock, a 3-episode series from the BBC, first aired in the US in October 2010 on PBS "Masterpiece Mystery." We were very pleased to find that PBS mentioned the Beacon Society in its Book and Film Club: Sherlock list of "Resources" for the first show, A Study in Pink. More episodes of Sherlock air on PBS in May 2012 and another series has been promised for 2013.