Stick & Fetch Investigate: Barking Up the Wrong Tree; Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Elissa Elwick16/8/2019
Sally Stick and her dog Fetch live with her granny, Granny Stick. Sally is the founder and chief of the Stick & Fetch Detective Agency that she runs out of Granny’s kitchen. She loves solving mysteries along with her her beloved pet dog, Stick, and together they make quite the detective duo. The only problem is the duo are all too often, ‘barking up the wrong tree’.
Barking Up the Wrong Tree sees Stick and Fetch investigating three case. When Stick answers the phone and hears Mrs. Plink saying that she is about to explode, she leaps into detective action. Following the clues to a TV studio, the duo will need to act fast if they are to save Mrs. Plink from meeting an explosive end. Then an empty photo frame appears on the desk of the Stick & Fetch Detective Agency and something doesn’t seem right. Where has the photo gone? There’s no time for ‘clowning’ around if they are to solve this mystery. And then on a wintry morning a balloon that proclaims to be 80 years old today is discovered in the back garden. The detectives surmise that a balloon of that age must have been stolen from the local museum and that’s not the only thing that might’ve been stolen. I love a good mystery and I like how this book introduces the genre of crime and mystery, albeit in a light-hearted and silly way, to young readers. What first appear as mysteries to the duo are actually misunderstandings and then a series of coincidences that lead them to believe they have solved a mystery. Stick and Fetch always return to Granny’s completely unaware of the mayhem that their detecting has caused. These three crazy crime-capers are packed with fun and humour. Stick and Fetch are loveable characters and I love how Stick always manages to turn the most mundane things into exciting adventures and mysteries that need to be solved. There are plenty of detective-themed words used in the text and I always like to read a book that is true to it’s genre. Readers are introduced to arch-nemesis, deduce and trace, amongst others. These detective-themed words are written in a different font and explanations are given allowing readers to accurately follow the story. The book is illustrated throughout with illustrations in warming shades of yellow that bring the story to life. A read brimming with imagination and how adventure can always be found if you look hard enough. Recommended for 6+
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