Basil of Baker Street. (Great Mouse Detective). Eve Titus. 1958. 113 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: The mystery of the missing twins could never have been solved by an ordinary detective. But Basil, of course, was far from ordinary.
Premise/plot: Basil and Dr. David Q. Dawson share a house with Sherlock Holmes. Basil, the great detective, is a mouse who learns from the best of the best. Dr. David Q. Dawson is his sidekick, his Watson, if you will. In this early chapter book--illustrated, of course, the two solve the case of two missing children--Agatha and Angela. This is a case that will put them in some degree of danger--particularly from owls--but they will stay on the case and follow all the clues...
My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I think I would have probably loved it even more as a kid. It just LOOKS like a delightful, fun, animal fantasy. (And fortunately, it is nothing like Stuart Little.) As an adult, I do have a few questions as to how this mouse society works. The infrastructure between the human world and the mouse world--I've got questions. It makes sense that his mouse city would all be housed either in the basement or the attic of Sherlock Holmes' place, but, I'm not sure HOW he gets around to all the places he gets. And I think there's even trains? I don't know. The more I thought about this one, the more questions I had. But it was in some ways just a delight.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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