From School Library Journal
Grade 2–4—Silliness overwhelms a pell-mell plot involving a clueless detective, Sensible Hare; his otter sidekick, Ottoman, who lives in a hole in the wall; and a host of other characters. Mazy Hare has lost a suitcase full of carrots, which alert readers will instantly realize is poor Sensible's makeshift desk. A hidden passage to the villain underworld leads to a wild chase, the theft of a red herring leather suitcase stuffed with money, and policemen bearing teacups. Oh, and there are ghost hats. While Roberts's witty, elongated drawings illuminate the short chapters, they can't save the crowded, harum-scarum story.—
Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
King opens this madcap detective chapter book by admitting that “Sensible Hare was not a sensible hare.” He then runs his daft hero through all manner of silliness as Sensible sets to work solving the mystery of a missing suitcase full of carrots. Sensible runs afoul of a menacing landlord who totes around three mini–menacing landlords in his pocket, a gaggle of dopey and dastardly villains, and a squad of buffoonish, tea-drinking constables. He’s helped along by his pal Ottoman Otter, who, for no reason at all, has a thimble, and “had named the thimble Thimble, after his grandma, Thimble Otter, who had been named after a thimble.” That should clue you in to the sensibility at work here, which shoots for wacko humor in lieu of sense at every juncture. While some might get tripped up in all the zany zigzags, fans of Bruce Hale’s Chet Gecko mysteries who don’t mind some heavy absurdity will find it a hoot. Roberts’ line illustrations, a sort of cartoonish take on Edward Gorey’s Mystery! work, help set the oddball scene. Grades 2-4. --Ian Chipman
