Butler, Dori Hillestad. King & Kayla and the Case of the Mysterious Mouse. Illustrated by Nancy Meyers. Peachtree, 2017. 42 pages (978–1–56145–879–0)

Ages 4-7

King, a large dog,  narrates this appealing mystery story (part of a series). Here, he and  Kayla, the brown- skinned girl who is, he explains, “my human,” try to determine what happened to King’s ball after Kayla’s friend Jillian accidentally threw it over the fence. It’s nowhere to be found.  Kayla approaches the case by making lists of what she knows, and what she needs to find out. But King knows things he can’t communicate to Kayla, like the fact that the cat with no name says a mouse took his ball (which seems impossible to King). King is a hilarious narrator, in part because he is telling Kayla (and readers) what he knows, but of course all she’s hears is barking, and in part because he’s just funny.  Pencil and digitally colored illustrations accompany the narrative in each book. We look forward to more King and Kayla! ©2018 Cooperative Children’s Book Center