Book Review: Dog's Best Friend, A Middle School series book, by James Patterson

Dog’s Best Friend: A Middle School series book, by James Patterson (HarperCollins, 2016, 256 pages, $13.99, grades 3-7, ages 8-12)

Dogs and Sisters

Yes, he can! James Patterson, that thrilling bestselling author-with-a-mission* everyone reads (Alex Cross,

The 26th Alex Cross novel

the Women’s Murder Club series,

etc.) or at least knows about, can also write children’s books! Excellent kid books that kids will want to read the entire series of.

            Patterson’s Mission: to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read, only people who haven’t found the right book

Widen your adult horizons by picking up a Young Adult James Patterson, a Jimmy book (whose many titles have the goal of getting youngsters to read “just one more”).

The Plot

Our favorite middle schooler, Rafe, wants a computer Gamebox game so he starts a dog-walking business, Dogs To Go (if you picked up the book solely because of dogs, you may be disappointed but not by the story or the hilarious antics of our young hero).

Yes, our hero has a dog, Junior, who, like most dogs, loves the dog park where every human knows all the dogs’ names and none of the humans’.

Rafe Khatchadorian lives with his grandmother (who mysteriously frequents soup kitchens), waitress mother, and smart and smart-aleck little sister, Georgia - so smart that she is promoted to some of Rafe’s middle school classes. What could be worse in middle school than having your smarter sister in your class?

The Great Dog War

But wait!

There is a war brewing in town when twins move in and start a rival dog-walking business. The twins and Rafe are constantly undermining each other’s business and playing expensive-for-a-kid (dangerous?) creative pranks on each other. It seems that the twins started the canine wars.

But did they really?

Enter Murray the Magician. . . .

Parents will love the reality depicted by author James Patterson. On the other hand, perhaps it is merely a parent’s desired reality – where kids learn lessons and actually apologize.

Kids will love to laugh on page after page because they simply can’t guess what’s coming.

As for the magician, read the book!

* Patterson’s mission: “to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read, only people who haven’t found the right book.” Case in point: he sends books to deployed soldiers (I was one such recipient in Afghanistan) and has donated more than three million books to the military and to kids.

Next on our list: The Dog Diaries

by James Patterson and his newest, Katt vs. Dogg