Ramon Fellini: The Dog Detective – Perfect Picture Book Friday

*

Attention mystery lovers! Hard-boiled detective lovers! And those who love dark humor. This book’s for you!

What will a child predict will happen, based on this cover? That the cat is really a dog? Hmmmm. Perhaps we need to read to find out?

It was a normal, quiet night, when suddenly....
"Aaa aahh!"
The sound echoed up the stairs.

Uh oh. Observe the catastrophe at the bottom of the stairs.

Someone attacked the fishbowl" shouted Mom.
"Look at the mess! We need to find out who did this!"

The yellow fish was terrified,
as if he'd just seen a monster. Quick!
No time to lose! My little buddy needed
a new place to stay.

That's when he appeared.
"Ramon Fellini the Dog Detective,
at your service."
"Don't you mean the cat?"
"Dog."
"But you look like a cat."
"I'm a dog in a cat costume.
They call me the Master of Disguise,
and I've come to offer my detective services.
Don't worry! I will find the cat
who attacked your fish."
"How do you know it was a cat?"
"Wasn't it a cat?"
"I don't know..."
"I know it was! It can only be a Fellini
thing...that is, a feline thing, of course."

Now, I know what you’re thinking. (Well, maybe not, but I’m going to act all-knowing like that cat—ah, dog.) That’s an awful lot of text on one page for today’s picture books. At first glance, I thought so, too. But it reads so quickly, in part because it’s dialog and part because the cadence of the word choices moves briskly…like a hard-boiled detective story. (Recall Tara Lazar’s Private I stories.)

Soooo, throw out the 500 words or fewer rule. I’m saying it works here. And that’s all that matters.

As you can see from this sample, there’s a huge amount of interplay between the text and illustrations that offers humor and tension.

And the ending? Well, it reminded me of Klassen’s hat stories, where certain things happen off the page. Nuff said.

This will make for an amazing read aloud. Cheers!

Oh, and Amazon says it’s not supposed to release until Feb. 11, but it also says it’s available to purchase now.

Activities:

Make an origami cat and dog.

Make up a story about what you think happened to the fish. If you do this in class, how many different versions are there for what happened?

Pair this book with one of Tara Lazar’s Private I series. How are the books similar/different?

Title: Ramon Fellini: The Dog Detective

Author/Illustrator: Guilherme Karsten

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Ages: Elementary school

Themes: cats, dogs, mystery, dark humor

For more perfect picture book recommendations, please visit Susanna Hill’s website.