Review: I Was a Third Grade Spy by Mary Jane Auch

Title: I Was a Third Grade Spy
Author: Mary Jane Auch
Publisher: Yearling
Published: Jan. 14, 2013
Pages: 96
Genre: Children ages 8 on up
Review: Paperback from Library
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 

Believe it or not–and you better believe it–Josh’s dog Arful can talk! This is very useful to Josh and his pals who want to win the school talent contest. First the boys have to find out what the girls are planning for the contest. That’s when they send Arful to get an earful by spying on the girls. Just wait until show time to see what Arful the spy uncovers.

I picked this book out for K from the library as it seemed that it might hold his attention. I knew it was a chapter book so I was interested to see how he would have liked it. 

I was impressed that he wanted to continue reading it night after night. We only read about three to four chapters a night and they were really short so that was easy for us to stop and pick up again the next day. 

This book is about a dog named Arful who can talk the boys Brian, Josh and Dougie don't want everyone to know so they try to keep it hush hush. When there is a school talent contest that will be happening the boys think that if Arful can find out from the girls what they are doing it will better their chances at winning. 

It is a bunch of laughter trying to get Arful to follow directions and seeing the different ideas the boys come up with. 

K said he liked the story and thought a talking dog was funny. When asked if he would like a talking dog he said "no because that would be weird." His favorite parts was the whole thing because Arful made it funny. He is wanting to read more from this author so I am hoping our library has more for us to read.