The Buddy files: the case of the lost boy

The Buddy files: the case of the lost boy

 By Dori Hillestad Butler, Ill. Jeremy Tugeau

This book is a Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee for 2012.

King the dog, and his human Kayla solve mysteries. But he gets locked up in the Pound while Kayla’s mom is serving in the National Guard. He got put there when Kayla and her dad left him with a dog-sitter and then disappeared.

So now he has to figure out a way to get out of the pound, and then find his people. Meanwhile, a family comes to adopt a dog from the pound and chooses King. They re-name him Buddy, and take him home with them as a school dog for the divorced mom, and companion for the boy who misses his dad.

It turns out that his new family lives in the house that shares a back yard with his former family’s house, giving him the perfect opportunity to continue his search for his missing family. However, it is very complicated for a dog to be a detective without a human to open doors for him.

Suddenly his new boy Connor goes missing while he is walking Buddy, and of course Buddy has to find out what happened to him too. Using his doggy skills and intuition, Buddy surmises that Connor has gone to the airport to fly back to his dad in California.

Luckily, the mom finally believes that the dog is trying to communicate with her and comes to the same conclusion. The boy is found and rescued and all is well that ends well, except that now Buddy/King needs to continue his original search for his former family, find them, and decide who he wants to live with, to be a completely happy animal.

One of the strengths of this book is the characterization of the dog. He is not a human, he is limited by his being a dog while also being enriched by the extra senses that dogs have. Also, the dog’s identity is enhanced by his attitude toward life. He has simple pleasures and clear joys, the most outstanding of which is his love of food, all food.

Butler, D. H., & Tugeau, J. (2010). The Buddy files: the case of the lost boy. Chicago, Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company.