Arf: A Bowser and Birdie Novel

A bunch of robbers break into a house, but the owners can’t figure out what has been stolen. Nor can they figure out why the robbers would choose that house, which everyone knows is guarded by Bowser, a large Swiss dog. The rest of the story follows Bowser and his owner, Birdie, as they try to find the answers to those questions.

Arf: A Bowser and Birdie Novel by Spencer Quinn is told by Bowser the dog. The story moves along very slowly for most of the book, and then moves very quickly towards the end. So it is not paced very well, but it is worth reading anyway. Many of the characters don’t seem well-developed because they don’t learn anything from the lessons that they face. The reader wants them to change, but they don’t so parts of the story become frustrating. I’ve read other books told from the point of view of an animal and enjoyed those better than this book. Telling the story from the dog’s perspective seemed like a fun idea, but I found it limiting.

This book would be good for readers ages 10-13 who like animal mystery stories and don’t mind it when characters don’t grow very much.