Jack Russell, the dog detective, has just sniff-sniffed his way into this latest mystery: The Awful Pawful.
The train pulled up to the train station in Doggeroo. Home again! Jack Russell enjoyed his vacation trip but, as you know, there is just no place like home. As soon as Jack and his human, Sarge, get off the train, Jack lifts his nose into the air and sniff-sniffs. How odd! Jack turns on his super-sniffer and sniff-sniffs again. He can’t smell his dog friend Jill Russell anywhere.
Upset that he didn’t get to see his friend, Jack and Sarge get into the car and head for home. Jack, being what he is, continues to sniff the different scents. As he passes the pug’s house, Jack sniffs. No pug scent. As he passes the boxer’s house, he sniffs again. No boxer scent. In fact, as Jack and Sarge pass each doggie house Jack can’t catch a whiff of any of his doggie friends. Have they all been dognapped?
Jack is certain that he has a new case to solve. As he sits in dog bed on the porch, chewing on his squeaky dog toy, Lord Red, the setter, walks into the yard. Aha! So not all the dogs have disappeared from Doggeroo!
Lord Red, however, does have some disturbing news. There is something awful living in Doggeroo. An Awful Pawful that attacks dogs and leaves ten brutal scratches on their noses. When asked what the Awful Pawful is exactly, Lord Red is uncertain. So far, he has been lucky enough not to find out personally.
Jack is on the case. He heads off to the Squekes (small, yappy dogs) house. Not finding them in their yard, Jack goes into the house to search for them. Where do dogs hide when they are scared? Under the bed!
Jack gets nowhere with the Squekes. They are terrified about being attacked again and won’t tell Jack what the attacker looks like. As Jack visits all his dog friends and finds each one scared and under the bed, he realizes he has a long way to go to solve this case.
The Awful Pawful (Kane/Miller Book Publishers, ISBN 978-1-933605-53-1), book five in the Jack Russell: Dog Detective series, by Darrel and Sally Odgers is the latest in mystery fun for children. Written for ages 9 and up, The Awful Pawful will not only delight children with its doggy fun but their parents as well.
Librarians and Language Arts teachers will also love all of wordplay in the Jack Russell series. Words are given a very doggy perception. For example, territory is written as terrier-tory because Jack Russell is a terrier. In The Awful Pawful there are also the words pawmission (permission), interrier-gate (interrogate), and terrier-fied (terrified).
