Rhymes, crimes and a dog who loves stories. Julia’s latest funny book is a tail-wagging delight! Maybe you have a dog who’s great at begging for treats or chasing sticks. Peter’s dog, Nell, has a talent for sniffing out clues. Who does the lost shoe belong to? Who did a poo on the new gravel path? Nell’s nose knows! But Nell doesn’t just love sniffing out mysteries. She adores stories. Every Monday she goes to school with Peter and listens to the children as they read. So when all the school’s books disappear, it’s a case for Detective Dog Nell!

A hilarious new rhyme from top talent Julia Donaldson

Jaunty, charming artwork from rising star Sara Ogilvie

A wonderful celebration of books, reading – and dogs!

“This book is a delight” – The Sunday Times

Product Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781509801602

Publisher

Macmillan Children's Books

Date published

March 2nd, 2017

Lexile measure

590L Lexiles are the global standard in reading assessment. They are unique as they are able to measure a child and a book on the same scale – ensuring the right book gets to the right child at the right time.

For more details see What is a lexile?.

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 3.8; Lower years; 0.5 points

Other details

32 pages

Condition

New

Author/Illustrator

Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson is author of many of today’s best-loved picture books including The Gruffalo and Stick Man. Best known for her collaborations with Axel Scheffler, each of these vivid rhyming stories is a triumph of imagination. She was also the Children’s Laureate 2011-2013.

More about Julia: “I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).

Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us.

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.

Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.

The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television.

One of my television songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published.

My real breakthrough was The Gruffalo, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately – he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow – but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

My novel The Giants and the Joneses is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic Princess Mirror-Belle who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old.

When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs.”