Assessment:
Plot: Architect Lani Bellamie, Jim Queenan’s new girlfriend, and her dog Ingo move in with him and his son Patrick. Ingo gets sick after eating a neighbor child’s rejected lunch, which apparently contained poison. With a catastrophic turn of events, so begins the mystery involving intrigue and espionage that the super intelligent Ingo will help solve.
Prose/Style: The grammar would benefit from professional assistance, with run-on sentences and misplaced modifiers quite common. The sentence structure is sometimes a little awkward and the vocabulary is at the high school level. This story is a simple mystery that pretty much solves itself, but the writing would make it challenging for most middle schoolers.
Originality: This YA novel exhibits a completely adult sensibility and many of the points the author chooses to focus on would not be of particular interest to kids, such as recipes and adults’ clothing. Too much of the action is intended to showcase dog psychology, biology and training, which interrupts the narrative in sometimes uncomfortable ways.
Character Development/Execution: The main human characters here are Lani, Jim, and Pat, but the most important characters are the animals, particularly Ingo. As the novel progresses, readers will be more and more amazed by Ingo’s understanding and abilities.
Date Submitted: August 16, 2021
A rollicking, ripping tall tale…
Intricately and elegantly plotted and full of vividly rendered details, Gavin’s upper middle-grade series is a deliciously readable adventure story with mystery at its core.
The third installment sees Lani and Ingo moving to Washington DC to live as a family with Jim, his twelve-year-old son Patrick, and their pets. When Ingo becomes the poisoning target, the incident is just the beginning of a series of perilous situations. Will Ingo’smagical abilities help catch the dangerous spy ring? Gavin skillfully captures Ingo’s perspective and personality; Ingo can’t always convey its feelings, but readers will see the way it makes the most of its situation. Filled with intelligence and determination, Ingo overcomes significant obstacles in order to help its humans. Ingo’s growth from an unsure, young puppy to an exceedingly smart adult dog corresponds with that of Lani’s, who blooms into a mature adult willing to take chances and assert her independence. The narrative alternates between the hilarious human and dog dramas and Ingo’ssleuthing adventures. Besides addressing the subject of trauma and displacement, Gavinunderscores the power of resilience, patience, integrity, loyalty, bravery, compassion, and solidarity, revealing the positive sides of tight family and friendship bonds.