Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs Book

While Claude and Medea's main story is nothing new'bumbling baddies dognapping pooches'the trail the story follows to get there is a breath of fresh air in juvenile literature.

Weil not only features characters of a variety of ethnicities, but also of different economic backgrounds, which is not often seen in kid lit.

Claude and Medea are two very different children who are affected in a profound way by Ms. Rattlebee, an unusual substitute teacher. Ms. Rattlebee speaks in a squeaky voice and wears unusual clothes, but she challenges her students to think about their choices and the world around them. The author is herself a humane education teacher and no doubt weaves some of her own curricula into the story. Ms. Rattlebee's inspiration leads the duo to crack a dog theft case that has their city befuddled.

Weil's main characters and dialogue are realistic. (The bad guys are more of the cartoon variety, but perhaps this was done intentionally so as not to frighten sensitive youngsters.) I liked that Weil acknowledged that not all people react the same way to troubling information. For example, when Ms. Rattlebee discusses children forced to work in sweatshops in other nations, Claude is deeply upset by this information. Yet,

Claude was amazed that the other boys at the table…didn't seem similarly upset. Not only that, they were making fun of Ms. Rattlebee.

Good for Weil to acknowledge this as well as the fact that being a kid who cares about the world can be a lonely place.

There are a couple of aspects of this book that worry me that it won't get the wide exposure it deserves. The first is the fact that the cover design makes Claude and Medea look more like a juvenile fiction book from thirty years ago rather than the 21st century. It concerns me that the "tween" audience will reject it on its outdated look alone. My second concern is the word "Hellburn" in the title. That's not exactly a common term to be found in the children's book section, which may cause some overprotective parents to give the veto. That's a shame, because this truly is a well-written, values-positive book that will be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.

I purchased this book for my library.