Basil of Baker Street (1) (The Great Mouse Detective)

Such an adorable book that is surprisingly faithful to the series it's based on. "Basil of Bakerstreet" is a great way to get the young'ins interested in literature's greatest sleuth. I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and I was not disapointed when I read "Basil" with my baby sister. A+++

Came in pretty good condition for being a used book. Great book to have if your a Sherlock Holmes fan young and old will enjoy it.

My son loves this book. We look forward to order others from the collection.

This is the first book in the Eve Titus "Great Mouse Detective" series. It was first published in 1958, but the entire series has now been reissued in a crisp format with new cover art and the like. This struck me as one of the better Holmes knock-offs and one of the better mouse-character series, so the combination of the two make the whole series very appealing.The setup is that Basil, the famous mouse detective, lives in the cellar of Sherlock Holmes' house, and so he is able to follow Holmes' cases and sharpen his own detecting skills. Consequently, we get many clever allusions to the Holmes canon, but then we get Basil's own cases and adventures. Sometimes these Holmes homage books, (young Sherlock, Sherlock's younger brother, Sherlock's lost cases, YA Sherlock), work so hard to fit in with the Doyle Sherlock that they stop being entertaining and feel more like a complicated, awkward attempt to just stuff in as many Holmes references as possible. Not so here. It may be because the Basil readership is too young to get more than basic Homes references, but in any event this book goes for the flavor of the Doyle Holmes with just a few parallels to add spice. (They both play the violin; Basil hears snatches of dialogue from real Holmes books, and so on).Putting aside the Holmes angle, we also have a nicely realized mouse world, with amusing puns and mouse versions of the human world. Again, the author doesn't go for overkill or try to make every line some sort of mouse-sized joke, (like, say, the "Stilton" books sometimes do). This is just a mouse-centric world, and that's good for some clever fun.The mysteries are mild, but decent given the age of the target readership. There is Holmesian deduction that is fair, (and no more implausible than some Doyle efforts), and occasional bits of adventurous skulking and such.The upshot is that you get a nice Sherlock Holmes flavor, a fun mystery/adventure, and a cheerfully realized mouse world populated by engaging mouse characters. The author essays a slightly formal style that nicely fits the nature of the book. It's all crisp, direct, and fast paced, and so the combination is appealing across the board. A nice find for an early reader.(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The book that inspired the Disney movie of the same name; this short novel gives us a look at the Sherlock-inspired mouse Basil of Baker Street. I enjoyed it a lot and wouldn't mind reading more. After seeing the movie it made me curious to try the original book. If you want to learn about the original series, look here!

My 9 year old read it in one sitting. He loved it. The vocabulary was easy for him but he loved the story. We are getting more in this series.

I bought a hardcover copy for my neighbors kid.I still have my copy from when I got it in 1962

My 8 year old grandson couldn’t get into this as the prose and story haven’t dated well. I was kind of sad about that, but it does use rather archaic language for today’s techno savvy kids.

Je me suis offert le 1er tome de cette petite collection de Basil détective privé cet été, je vais essayer de trouver les autres...

Great book, basic english and easy.Adventure from start to finish. First book from five. Very good really. Reading for all ages. I liked.You feel in the story. Narrative that hold his imagination.

Schönes spannendes Buch für Kinder. Das Englisch ist einfach und super verständlich. Und Basil an sich ist super und meine Schwester liest es gerne.

Great book for kids, a fun read. The book was in great shape.

The Walt Disney film which was based upon these books is my favourite Disney film. Years later during my first year in high school I discovered Sherlock Holmes and have not look back since. Now at the age of 28 I decided to read the great mouse books.The first thing that struck me when I started reading is it reads like a Sherlock Holmes story. What I mean by that is; she writes as Dr.Dawson in the same way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes as Dr. Watson. The illustrations were good. I thought both Basil and Dawson were cute.