Howliday Inn

Howliday Inn

By James Howe

I looked forward to Howliday Inn with great anticipation, after being so pleasantly surprised by Bunnicula. I was, however, a little disappointed once I finally sat down to read it (but only a little disappointed, mind you).

In the second of James Howe's Bunnicula series, Harold the dog and Chester the cat are off on a new adventure. Their people are leaving on vacation, and Harold and Chester are off to spend the week at the Chateau Bow-Wow. 

Chester's over-active imagination has not taken a vacation, however.When dogs start disappearing from Chateau Bow-Wow, Chester has all kinds of theories as to who the dastardly villain is. The reader is left to try to figure out the mystery along with Chester and Harold.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I guess I think of it as kind of a 'cozy' read for me, but as a third grader I would have been held in much more terrible suspense, wondering where all the dogs were disappearing to. The reader is not given enough information to solve the mystery, but enough tantalizing clues are given to keep the reader engaged.

Chester and Harold still have their quirks in this book: Chester's imagination is still over-active, and Harold is still a little bit slow. If anything, their personalities have been a little bit polarized from the first book. Because their personalities are exaggerated a little in the second book, I also found the humor to be less entertaining. And honestly, I think the illustrations in the first book contributed greatly to the humor, and I wasn't as impressed with the illustrations in this book.

I will be recommending this series to the young readers I encounter at the library. In fact, we may be reading Bunnicula in our 3rd-4th grade book club during our Summer Reading Program. This is a great series to get young minds hooked on. Two thumbs up from me!