Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Our county library system does a monthly Goodreads challenge, and January’s was to read either a Sherlock Holmes story OR “something from the Sherlock pastiche”. Since I was feeling overwhelmed and read Doyle’s complete Holmes works as a kid, I was going to skip this particular challenge–until my friend Britt found me the perfect graphic novel. It still came down to the wire, I admit, but tonight I finished Muppet Sherlock Holmes.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Here’s the thing, folks. “The Muppet Show” is a very hazy memory. I was too young to really remember the details, but we had one of those books that you color on with the special crayons that wipe off–it was the Muppet stage, I think–and a friend of the family took my sister and me to see “The Muppet Show on Tour” when we were kids. (We got Gonzo and Fozzie felt cutouts–just their heads–on poles.) My grasp of the details isn’t much, but there’s still memory there, and reading Muppet Sherlock Holmes was like being transported back in time. There are key bits of Holmes stories, sure, but ultimately, it was vintage “Muppet Show.” Fozzie’s jokes, Gonzo’s random weirdness, and Kermit’s commentary kept me grinning; it was like a piece of the 80s had made it all the way to my 2020 married life. (Trippy, I grant you, but FUN.) If the muppets have ever been a thing in your life, friends, DON’T MISS THIS.

(It’s out of print, though, from what I can see. Hope your library is a good one!)