A Hare-Raising Tail

I started reading chapter books for my cousin's children, and we decided to pick out "A Hare-Raising Tale" by Elizabeth Levy as one of our books. The story is about a sleepy-eyed basset named Fletcher, whose fur spots are uniquely shaped like the continents of the world. He narrates the story to us, and starts off by saying that when he was a pup, he was put in the pet store, but because no one bought him, he was thrown out the back door and had to live in the streets. He makes friends with a flea named Jasper, but soon afterwards they are caught and put in the dog pound. While living in the pound, a girl named Jill comes and adopts him, and Fletcher goes to live with her. Jill and her friend Gwen decide to use Fletcher for show and tell, but things start going bad for Fletcher, when he is accused of doing something to Aniken (a mean rabbit), who is found missing after show and tell. Fletcher must prove that he is innocent by finding out what happened to Aniken. My niece and I found this book exciting from start to finish. In the beginning of the book, Fletcher is very concerned about how he looks, and feels that he will not do well like other bassets because of his short tail and his unusual spots. But later, he finds that he has other special qualities, which he uses to solve the mystery. This provides a very nice moral for children who are concerned about what others think of them, and tells them that they should not lose hope even when things look bad. Author Elizabeth Levy has used simple grammar and Mordicai Gerstein has drawn nice illustrations which children will find amusing and interesting. All in all, this is a fun chapter book to read which children and adults will find amusing to read.