A Hare-Raising Tail : A Fletcher Mystery

The Fletcher Mysteries

by Elizabeth Levy, Mordicai Gerstein (Illustrator)

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?

Genres: Mystery, Pets

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Elizabeth Levy has been writing and publishing books for over thirty years and sometimes now she meets kids whose parents read her books when they were children! She has written over 80 books, a number that continues to surprise her, as it surprises her how long she's been at it.

Over the years they've printed lots of her books - over five million of them.

She loves to try writing different types of books - everything from funny mysteries to novels about kids who get in trouble to history.

One of the most pleasant surprises about writing is that she's been invited to travel all over the country and even the world speaking to children, teachers, and librarians. She's made some wonderful friendships and gotten lots of ideas for her books. One of the most special treats is that kids have drawn wonderful pictures of one of her favorite characters, Fletcher.

She grew up in Buffalo, New York, then went to Brown University, where she majored in history. When she graduated, she came to New York City and worked for ABC-TV and then for Senator Robert Kennedy. She has lived in New York ever since, and she loves it. She knows all the best places for salami, she has run four marathons, and she has completed many 5-borough bike tours, so she thinks she really knows this place well.

At certain times of the year, she can be found out at Shea Stadium watching her team, the New York Mets. She has always loved baseball.

Mostly she enjoys hanging out with her friends. They spend lots of time going to movies or plays, playing sports, having meals together.

When she's alone and not writing, she is usually reading. She reads mysteries a lot, always has, which is probably why many of her books are mysteries.

Reviews

[Dolly]

This is an intriguing mystery in the Fletcher Mystery series by Elizabeth Levy and Mordicai Gerstein. This series features Jill and Gwen from the Something Queer series, but is told from Fletcher's perspective.

There's a bit more drama in the story than I expected, but overall it's an entertaining mystery. We enjoyed reading it together and will certainly look for more of these books at our local library.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza)]

An interesting "prequel" to the Something Queer series as seen through the eyes of their doggy, Fletcher. I can't help but feel this was a way to try and make them more PC, by having the cute dog and his little flea as the narrators and not having the different ways people can "read into" the word queer by now having them be the "Fletcher Mysteries". Also, I miss the seamless integration of art and text. Also the misspelling of Anakin as Aniken drove me up the wall.

[Sheila Burke]

This was a super-cute and very enjoyable story, appropriate for for elementary aged children.

[Sue Schleeter]

So cute

[Karen]

I thought this was a fun little story. It was fun to see who Annabelle thought took Anakin the rabbit. (The Rabbit-Killer of course!)

[Kim]

A cute story!

[Hillvan]

470L

[Jennifer Heise]

Got this out of the library to see if my first grader would try it, but despite the dog-as-narrator, it just didn't inspire.