A Complete Study in Charlotte Book Club Guide
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This month my daughter read A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro with her book club. Her book club consists of a few other homeschooled high school girls. They meet once a month to discuss a book.
This book is a young adult murder mystery about the teen descendents of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.
Last year the book club gravitated to deep heavy books. We wanted this year to be a little lighter so I chose books that are hopefully a little less depressing. I thought this suspenseful new series was interesting without being incredibly dark and depressing.
A Complete Study in Charlotte Book Club Guide
Overview
I will try to give you an overview of A Study in Charlotte without giving away any clues so you can enjoy the story for yourself.
This story follows Charlotte Holmes. Yes, that Holmes and that Watson. Charlotte is the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter and Jamie is John Watson’s distant grandson.
They are familiar with each other, due to their family’s histories, but seem to meet for the first time while attending Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school.
Charlotte is there because she needed space from her home and Jamie is attending on a rugby scholarship.
All of the students immediately associate the two because of their last names. They quickly become friends.
The story opens in the fall semester. Classes have begun, but it is still early when a Sherringford student is murdered. It doesn’t take long to realize that Jamie and Charlotte are in danger.
Someone seems to be acting out famous Sherlock Holmes stories. Suspicious circumstances make Jamie and Charlotte look like the guilty parties.
Will they get a chance to solve the crime or will the police handle the investigation?
I feel like that was the shortest book overview ever, but I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises. The fun of reading a mystery book is putting all of the clues, big and small, together.
Trigger Warnings – At the last book club, the girls suggested that books should come with trigger warnings. This way people can avoid topics that might hit too close to home.
At this book club we discussed possible trigger warnings for A Study in Charlotte and came up with:
- Sexual Assault (it isn’t graphic, but a sexual assault event is mentioned)
- Drug Use
- Swearing
- Murder
Discussion Questions
- What were your overall thoughts on the book?
- What do you think of the title? Does it make sense? What would you have named the book?
- This is the first book in a series. Are you likely to read the entire series?
- Did you identify with any of the characters?
- Were Charlotte and Jamie genuinely interested in solving mysteries or were they forced into those roles by their parents due to their family history? Is it their free will or their destiny to follow in the family notoriety?
- How does the setting of a Connecticut boarding school factor into the story? Would the story have been the same in London or while Jamie and Charlotte were living at home?
- Why do you think Charlotte uses drugs? Sherlock Holmes was written to use cocaine when he was bored (it was legal at the time and the effects were not well known). Does it make sense that someone as brilliant as Charlotte would use hard drugs knowing that they are dangerous?
- Have you ever read any of the classic Sherlock Holmes books? How do these compare?
- Did the plot feel believable? Is a believable plot important in a fiction story?
- Do you think Charlotte really would have traded her life for Jamie’s?
- This is a ya novel. Does that distinction feel accurate? Why or why not?
- We have discussed the idea of giving books trigger warnings. What trigger warnings would you give this book?
- How would you rate this book?
Snack Choices
Charlotte and Jamie reside in England when they are not attending boarding school, so I decided to serve teatime snacks . . . or at least my interpretation of teatime snacks.
I served:
- Scones with cream and strawberry jam
- Almond Biscotti
- Chocolate-dipped mandarin oranges
- Pumpkin pie hummus
- Crackers
- Pretzels
- Graham crackers
- Tea with sugar cubes on the side
Due to food allergies, I am keeping book club treats gluten-free and dairy free. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives available. I used the scone recipe from the Baked to Perfection cookbook (subbing dairy-free butter for regular and almond milk for cow’s milk) and they were amazing.
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Other Ideas
Use science tools as decor – Charlotte has her own lab at school, so I wanted to tie science into the book club, even if it was subtle.
I have an unusually large collection of beakers and test tubes but I didn’t want to put food in them. We use these materials in our Kristin Moon Science Chemistry Lab course and I wasn’t comfortable putting food in them after they had chemicals in them.
Instead, I used a beaker and a few test tubes as vases.
Sherlock Holmes Name Generator – The Sherlock Holmes name generator builds a title using a few different criteria. It is sort of like Mad Libs for book titles. This quick little activity got the girls laughing and chatting.
Read the Author’s Interview – Whenever possible, we like to hear from the author during book study. It helps us understand why they wrote a certain book.
Fingerprint Lab – When I was working on my daughter’s anatomy lesson plans, I realized that this book club meeting coincided with learning about the integumentary system.
I purchased a fingerprint lab from Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy on TeachersPayTeachers. We didn’t do the entire packet during book club, but learned a little about fingerprints and did the lab activity.
This was a pretty interesting activity and it tied in perfectly with a mystery.
Look up Local Prep Schools – The girls were intrigued by the idea of a prep school. They are all homeschooled, so the idea of going to classes while living somewhere else during high school was completely foreign. We looked up prep schools near us and were surprised to find one only a few miles away.
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