Farah Shaw finds it hard to resist a good mystery. And her favorite has always been that quintessential detective, Sherlock Holmes—so much so, she’s written a series based on the king of deduction.
“I wanted to write a book that re-introduced this generation of readers to Sherlock Holmes,” she explained. “I wanted to write about a hero who solved crimes based on his own ingenuity and logic.”
Shaw became familiar with Sherlock Holmes when she was in junior high. She was a writer even before that, so it was a natural progression to combine the two interests. One day, she simply began writing a story that had been percolating in her head. It was an idea, really, that just started to unfold.
Two years later, Sherlock Academy was born. It’s a chapter book for children ages 8 to 12 and follows the mystery-mastering adventures of Rollie and his best friend Cecily, who enroll in the academy, which teaches students to be great detectives like Sherlock Holmes. Within the first week of school, there’s a burglary and the mystery begins.
The task of writing came fairly easy for Shaw. The storyline simply unfolded, and the characters were inspired by both the familiar and fantasy.
“It was kind of a mesh of taking the reality around me, the quirks and qualities,” she said. “And I also took from friends and family. A lot of it comes from things around me, and a lot of it is just my crazy imagination.”
Being that the theme is Sherlock Holmes, Shaw purposefully added details about the detective, such as references to his methods of deduction and some of the case histories, into the story.
Shaw has been visiting schools to talk about her book. She also keeps a blog that introduces the characters and a website offering teacher resources at sherlockacademy.com. Each month, Shaw highlights a specific character, offering insight into him or her.
Her school visits have given her the most encouragement and feedback. Shaw has noticed kids really like the main character. Usually, kids like the quirky side characters who pop in and out. But since young readers have expressed a great interest in Rollie, Shaw said she must have done a great job.
“He wasn’t so stoic or so heroic that he was boring,” she said.
Growing up in San Bernardino County, Shaw was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school.
“Within that, I was encouraged to write and read,” she said. “I just wrote through the years as a hobby, but with the secret dream of ‘Oh, I want to be published some day.’”
And as a teacher, Shaw has always had a passion for working with kids. So writing and publishing Sherlock Academy has been rewarding in many ways. It’s also been a little surprising for those around her. Shaw said she’s never kept her writing secret, but never really talked about it either.
“I’ve just always written, and when I published the book, people I know were like, ‘You write?’” she said.
With Sherlock Academy, Shaw set out to do just that: write, with no goals of being published. She said she just did it for fun, but now with a sequel in the works she’s had to add some discipline. The next book has taken a lot more planning since it needs to incorporate elements from the first book, develop them, and weave them into the second story.
Still, the effort has been nothing but a labor of love.
“It’s kind of a lifetime dream that’s come true,” she said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is still waiting for her dream to come true. Shhhh—don’t wake her, just e-mail her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 18-25, 2010.