Book Review: The Case of the Purple Diamonds

Title: The Case of the Purple Diamonds
Authors: HK Gilbert & Misty Taggart
Illustrated by: Tim Davis
Summary: Barkley isn't your typical dog. He lives the life of belly rubs, crime fighting and spy catching. Barley is a 'secret' Secret Service Dog for the White House. He operates undercover to keep the White House safe. With his special Gizmo Gear Collar, he is ready to take on the sneakiest bad guys,solve the most exciting cases and get a few table scraps too. A typical day for Barkley is filled with amazing surprises, unexpected adventure and a lot of fun and excitement.  We can all rest easy knowing that Barkley Secret Service Dog is on patrol protecting our National Security and chasing down evil villains.

Review:  I was given the pleasure of reviewing the first of three books in the Barkley the Secret Service Dog series that currently contains 3 books. They are available at amazon.com . Barkley also has a web page that you can see if you click here.  I have to say that this book was delightful. My son and I read it together and the prose carried both of us along on a tale of hidden diamonds and peanuts. Barkley, the adventurous Basset Hound, loves peanuts and at the end of  this book we were ready to have some peanuts as well. The villain in this book, Smedley von Smellerhousen, is well written as not to be scary but clearly the bad guy. He is out witted by a cleaver canine, Barkely,  and a curious 12 year old girl, Gabby. The other characters , Agent Knox, Barkley's owner, Tessa, the head of Housekeeping and Gabby's grandmother, as well as Josette the chef's cat, are all well defined and engaging. Barkley and Gabby become partners to solve the case of the purple diamonds. My sons favorite parts of the story are when the villain crashes down the White House stairs while being chased by our heroes.  And when Barkley tells Gabby that Josette the cat want to be put outside and Gabby does so saving Barkley from a "cat fight".  I personally LOVED Barkley yelling GIZMO every time he activated his special collar. My son has asked when we will be receiving the next two installments of this crime fighting duo. That makes this a FAB choice in my book. I will be ordering them to arrive as school starts. I know they will be fun for him to read as part of his nightly reading program for school. The story is engaging even as introducing each of the characters for this series. The illustrations are beautifully done without being over done.Often the illustrations seem to be filler in chapter books for this age but that was absolutely not the case in this book. We really enjoyed the story, writing and illustrations and I would recommend this book to anyone whose children are reading chapter books.
This book was listed as appropriate for ages 8-12. I read it with my 9 year old and the 11 year old was sucked in by the story. I would say that 9 was exactly the right age for this story but younger kids would like the story if was read to them.
*************************************************************************
I received no compensation for this review other than the book itself. This book will be part of a giveaway for Blog O Rama September 12-22, 2011. Please come back and enter to win.
**********************************************************************************
Please vote for me by clicking below