A few small things to consider before starting this incredibly awesome, "still got it" mystery are…

• some old fashioned words and phrases like gimlet, rubber truncheon, desultory, and torch.
• more than a few damns thrown in.
• some moralizing and Bible verses thrown in.
• the subject of murder

We know (or think we know) what you're thinking: Of course there's murder, this is a murder mystery. Though it's a cozy mystery—very little blood, violence, sex, or language—it's still about a man who takes the law into his hands, murders ten people, and then commits suicide. That's a lot of violence to take in and definitely will need to be addressed in class.

While Reading

One way to get the students actively participating is to assign them the task of note-taking as they're reading instead of just going along for the ride. They can jot down (or mark with stickies) every time they come across:

• The Ten Little Indians poem
• The china figures in the middle of the dining table
• A murder, noting who dies when and how
• A suspect, whom they think is the murderer (which may change as people die off)
• Possible clues
• Information on the characters (see Step 3 of the "Character Cards" activity)
• Examples of foreshadowing

After Reading

On the one hand, this book is super easy to teach. It's a fairly easy read with quick chapter and chapter section breaks. The plot is fast moving and it's so intriguing that it fairly begs the reader to hurry to the end. We suppose that's why it's made it onto the best-sellers list. Yup, right there after Harry Potter.

A potential draw back to this quick and easy read is that your students might rush right through—What's going to happen next???—and not spend a lot of time in contemplation, which is surely what your teacher's heart desires. And the story really does have a lot of morality to contemplate: