It's Elementary: The Case of the Library Monster

It's spring break, and time to play catch-up!  My apologies for being an inconsistent blogger.  Today's review is of The Case of the Library Monster, part of The Buddy Files series by Dori Hillestad Butler.

Statistics
Checkouts: Coming soon to the library
Typical reader: Middle-grade elementary students who like dogs
Source: Personally purchased from the Scholastic Book Fair

Synopsis: Buddy is a therapy dog at a school library.  One day he hears a noise in the bookshelves and finds himself face to face with a strange monster.  What is it?  Where did it come from?

My Goodreads rating: 3 stars

This is actually book 5 in the series, but the story stands alone very well without prior knowledge of Buddy's adventures.  It's episodic, and I like that quality in a kid's book, especially in a library with a tiny book budget.  I don't have to track down the first four to make it worthwhile.

Buddy is the narrator of the story.  On the one hand, this should really appeal to many kids.  I know that I liked that sort of book when I was young and related better to animals than to people.  But on the other hand, it's a really annoying voice.  My sympathies to parents that read this to/with their young ones.  Imagine Dug from the movie Up narrating an entire story.  It's not pretty.

My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you.

Despite the narration, this is fairly realistic fiction.  The humans cannot understand Buddy, and he behaves likes a dog.  There's information about what the monster is from a book that a student reads to Buddy.  He can't solve everything about the mystery, but through his doggy actions he can bring about some resolution to the mystery.