Curriculum Review: Progeny Press Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide

We received a free copy of Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide (E-Guide) in exchange for our review. It is published by Progeny Press. All opinions are based on our family’s use of this product.

What do you do with an 11-year-old, avid reader who enjoys reading almost anything he picks up? What about when the youngest in the house wants to read the same book he saw the older kids reading just last year?  I recommend using a literature study guide like Progeny PressHound of the Baskervilles Study Guide.

In our house, I sometimes want to slow the kids down in their reading and make sure they are getting the story-line and understand the characters and plot. At 11, my son is this person, he’s dialectic in nature, loves a good discussion, but isn’t quite there with verbalizing his critical analysis of literature. It’s a skill that’s just around the corner, so allowing him to enjoy a book and literature study like Progeny Press’s literature study guide for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Hound of the Baskervilles seemed like a good fit.

About the Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide from Progeny Press.

This Progeny Press literature study guide is extremely comprehensive. Each chapter is studied in depth.  Vocabulary & comprehension questions start out each section, followed by more detailed literary analysis and finally a comparison study using biblical scripture and really thought-provoking questions to delve into the characters, analyze social issues and get at the heart of identifying Godly character qualities. To finish off the study, students pick a final project. 

I really appreciate literature studies that dig deep into challenging issues. Using literature questions and discussion is the perfect way to help our families make sense of the world around them by discussing stories with a fictional setting, plot, and characters.  

My son chose to do one section of the guide a week. I didn’t require him to do all of the critical analysis questions and scripture lookup. However, I did expect him to complete the vocabulary and comprehension questions and have a family discussion with us using the critical analysis questions as a guide. Since his siblings had read the book previously, they were eager to join in the discussion, even though their current academic load did not allow them time to do the full study.

There is so much content in the study guide that scaling it to your child’s academic abilities might be necessary. We plan to take another look at this book, using the Progeny Press literature study guide, when we tackle British Literature during high school.

Here’s a sample of some of the vocabulary words from the study guide.

Would I recommend this literature study guide?

For your  11-year-old? … Maybe… But I will definitely choose one from their elementary or middle school literature resources for future studies,

Would I recommend this for your high schooler? ….Definitely!

Every family is different and should evaluate the curriculum for themselves. It is clearly geared toward high school level students, but many portions could be used for family discussion or community learning groups.

What I do like is that since my son enjoyed the book so much, I can easily pull the study guide back out and we can dig deeper into the areas where he didn’t grasp the concepts as well as I would have liked. 

Studying the Victorian era, England, and great British authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are rich opportunities not to be missed. Progeny PressHound of the Baskervilles Study Guide is an exciting way to get boys to enjoy reading classics.

Read more about Progeny Press and the many literature study guides for kids of all ages and grade levels .

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