SENSIBLE HARE AND THE CASE OF THE CARROTS

This chapter-book mystery presents readers with more style than substance as it tells the tale of Sensible Hare, Hare Detective. Sensible doesn’t always act sensibly and is, in fact, rendered quite silly by the appearance of lovely Mazy Rabbit, who wants him to find a missing case of carrots. With the able assistance of Ottoman, the otter who lives in a tiny cupboard off Sensible’s office, he pursues clues and case into and out of a veritable den of thieves to a not-very-surprising conclusion. There’s so much right about this slim book: Sensible struggles to match his tough-hare persona, who “has tidy ears and … feet as fast as kung fu”; Mazy cries “parsley tears”; Sensible’s landlord, Mr. Ratchet, is “so big, he carrie[s] three smaller Mr. Ratchets in his overalls pocket”—literally. But as daffy detail heaps on daffy detail—Ottoman lives with a thimble he has named Thimble; Sensible’s office, a former haberdashery, has ghost hats floating about—the thin plot goes as missing as the case of carrots, and readers will wonder exactly what just happened. (Mystery. 7-9)