Elementary school-age children may not know Sherlock Holmes. They certainly haven’t read the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Those young ages might’ve seen A Hard Day’s Knight, Season 1, Episode 10 of Phineas and Ferb that paid homage to The Hound of Baskervilles, but they probably didn’t catch the reference. Slightly older audiences will know Enola Holmes, which will hopefully lead them to the BBC series Sherlock, among others. But I digress…SquirrelLock Holmes: The Pet Rock Mystery is an early reader graphic novel that’s firmly locked into its core audience.
This graphic novel is the stepping stone before Dog Man or the Investigators. Is there a book category for the reluctant Dog Man reader? If there is, it can surely be solved by a skinnier book. SquirrelLock Holmes 1 is as thick as some of the early reader chapter books that pre-k through second graders will read. Its weight and appearance are similar, but it’s content is more complex than I Can Read, Level 1 books.
The Pet Rock Mystery is not at the I Can Read, Level 2 book. It’s somewhere in between, but is closer to the younger ages. Those books do a great job in building confidence and stair-stepping young readers up to the next level. SquirrelLock Holmes is pun-driven fun for those kids who need to read, but require that ‘graphic novel’ pizzazz to get them over the reluctant reader hump.
The pun-per-page ratio equals approximately 1:1, and for an early reader book with 67 pages, that’s quite high. The Pet Rock Mystery is broken into five chapters. This will help emerging readers build up to the level that can comfortably read a book longer than a dozen or two pages in one sitting. There are all sorts of devices, designs, packages, and stories that can help readers develop more quickly.
A pun-driven book with a silly squirrel wearing a deerstalker hat and matching vest to boot. His ‘Watson” is a bow-tie wearing mole who’s quick to chase down clues and be the unwitting recipient of any number of puns. Silly is the word of the day when you’re talking about SquirrelLock Holmes: The Pet Rock Mystery. It’s the sort of manic, high-energy early chapter book-with a graphic novel twist, to lock in those reluctant boy readers. This is the crowd that’s not quite ready for Dog Man, but desperately want to read something punny to keep up with their slightly older brethren.
SquirrelLock Holmes: The Pet Rock Mystery is by Ashley Belote and available on RH Graphic, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.
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