Product Description

Ready-for-Chapters

Who's Got The Bunny?

Fletcher's no ordinary basset hound. In the first place, his markings form a map of the world. In the second place, his best friend is...a flea.

Fletcher and his flea pal, Jasper, have survived a lot together -- life on the streets, incarceration at the pound, even a flea bath. But now Fletcher has a new home with Jill, and things are looking up. Until Jill and her best friend, Gwen, take Fletcher to school for show-and-tell, and the class's pet rabbit disappears. Everyone knows hounds and hares don't mix, and Fletcher is accused of having done the bunny in. Can he, with a little help from Jasper and Jill and Gwen, sniff out the real rabbit-napper before it's back to the pound for Fletcher?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4812231 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-Jill and Gwen from the popular "Something Queer" series (Hyperion) now appear in a beginning chapter book. The story centers around Jill's dog, Fletcher, who tells the story. There are many things that set him apart from your average basset hound: his best friend is a flea named Jasper and the color pattern of his fur looks like a map of the world. When the girls decide to take Fletcher to school for their geography lesson, he is blamed when the class's pet rabbit is suddenly missing. If he can't prove his innocence, it's back to the pound. Once again, Levy weaves a mystery that will capture chapter-book audiences. Full-page, black-and-white cartoons plus spot art capture the classroom antics and the pup's antics and dilemma.
Hannah Hoppe, Miles City Public Library, MT
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 2-5. Fletcher, the sleepy-eyed basset hound from Levy's Something Queer series, becomes lead protagonist and detective in this new Ready-for-Chapters book. When eight-year-old Jill adopts Fletcher the stray dog, he and his best flea friend, Jasper, are happy to get a home. Things are looking up until Jill takes Fletcher, with his unique markings, to show-and-tell. Fletcher is initially a hit; but when the class rabbit mysteriously disappears, he's targeted as a potential bunny-eater. However, Fletcher reveals that slow-moving doesn't mean slow-witted, and with Jasper's aid, Fletcher finds and reveals the real culprit. Well paced for a beginning chapter book, this features familiar classroom personalities and activities, as well as plenty of goofy humor, from Jasper's tongue twisters to Fletcher's first-person, descriptive narrative, which includes amusing commentary on human and animal behavior. Readers will enjoy the unlikely but likable dog detective, who discovers the joys of family, has a nose for sleuthing, and enjoys an occasional salami treat. A solid addition to the Ready-for-Chapters series. Illustrations not available for review. Shelle Rosenfeld
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Elizabeth Levy says:
Fletcher Rules!
There are three things I love -- dogs, mysteries, and salami. I also am fascinated and moved by the ways we love our pets and they love us. I first wrote about Fletcher, a salami-eating basset hound, in the Something Queer Mysteries more than thirty years ago. But those books were Gwen and Jill's mysteries. I always wondered what Fletcher thought about things. I love hearing from kids and visiting schools. Children from all over the world sent me wonderful drawings of Fletcher. I decided it was time for Fletcher to tell his own stories and star in his own series. But writing is mysterious. I never knew that a friendly flea named Jasper would join Fletcher. As I began these books, Jasper just started popping up and chatting. Now, Gwen, Jill, Fletcher, Mordicai, and I have a new friend. He's rather tiny, but he's a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more mysteries with Fletcher and Jasper and their humans, Gwen and Jill.

Customer Reviews

Is Fletcher responsible for Aniken's disappearance?
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.