The Dog Squad: The Newshound by Clara Vulliamy

Title: The Dog Squad: The Newshound

Author: Clara Vulliamy

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 2^nd August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 128

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: Three budding journalist friends and their faithful hound uncover top local news stories in this delightful new series about family, friends and DOGS!
Eva has always wanted to be a journalist, so when she finds a stray dog outside her home, she might just have found her first case. Can she, along with her best friends at the Newshound newspaper, Simone and Ash, find Wafer’s real owner? As the trail leads from one dead end to another, Eva realises that she might not want to get to the bottom of the mystery after all – because won’t that just mean she just has to give Wafer back?

With non-binary representation within the cast of characters, join Eva and her friends at the Newshound as they solve exciting new mysteries . . .

~*~

Clara Vulliamy has a new series, and this time, dogs are the hero! Eva and her friends, Ash, who is non-binary, and Simone, are keen journalists. One day, Eva finds a lost greyhound puppy, whom she calls Wafer. But Wafer can’t stay, which means that Eva and her friends have to find out where Wafer has come from. As they investigate, they keep hitting dead ends everywhere – nobody seems to know where Wafer has come from. And as they continue to investigate, things get murkier and Eva understands she doesn’t really want to know where Wafer has really come from – especially if it means she has to give Wafer back.

The start of a new series is always fun, and I love that the non-binary character, Ash, is allowed to be who they are, and is just there. This is a fantastic way to incorporate it, as it is likely something that children these days will have in their lives more than previous generations. Eva and her friends are lots of fun and very keen to find out more about Wafer, so the curiosity of kids is present in a big way in this book. another thing to note is the family situation – Eva lives with her mum, her older brother, Wes, and her younger sister, Macy in a flat that doesn’t allow animals – another challenge that Eva has to overcome throughout the novel.

Something I have really been enjoying about kid’s books aimed at all ages recently is the wide array of interests and hobbies the child characters have, and the brilliant thing is, these characters are not constrained to an interest by gender. There are girls playing sports or into science, creative boys, and everything in between. I like to see this because it shows that there are so many things that children can be interested in other than what someone might assume a child will like based on their gender. Journalism for kids as an interest feels like it has always been there, but books like the Dog Squad make it more prominent, as Ash, Eva and Simone have a fabulous adult to help them – their librarian, Miss Meera Kapoor They do all the work, and she encourages them. It is awesome to see this play out.

Another aspect of this book that I liked was the interaction between Eva, her friends and some of the other students at school. All kids have felt left out at times, and this book acknowledges that, and how it can happen – with the hope for a resolution. This secondary plot brought the reality of school life alive, showing the age-old problems of excluding people from things, and other people making a point to make sure someone knows they aren’t included or welcome. We have all experienced this to some extent, and I think seeing it in print validates the feelings children have when this happens to them. This plot was included nicely, and allowed Wafer’s story to have the attention it needed to introduce us to the characters and what they do – and I am looking forward to seeing how this series plays out. I love stories with dogs – and cats – and I hope the fun continues!