Author: Emily Ecton
Illustrator: David Mottram
© Date: 2020
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 247
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, but a lot of page layouts do not have illustrations
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: Butterbean knew she wasn’t always a good dog. Still, she’d never considered herself a BAD dog-until the morning that her owner, Mrs. Food, fell in the hallway Admittedly the tile was slipperier than usual, mostly because Butterbean had just thrown up on it. (To be fair, she’d spent most of the morning chasing her tail.)
Now Butterbean and her fellow pets have to come up with a grand plan to support themselves in case Mrs. Food is unable to keep taking care of them. When they discover a mysterious man in their building who seems to have lots of loot, they plan a heist. Oscar the mynah bird is the brains of the operation. Walt the cat has the necessary slyness and slink. Marco and Polo are reconnaissance rats. And Butterbean…well, who would ever suspect a cute little wiener dog? If only these animal friends can pull off the heist of the century, they just might keep themselves from being sent to the pound.
Page Pig Thoughts: When Mrs. Food slipped, fell, and was knocked unconscious in the first chapter, I began to wonder if we made a mistake picking out this book. Although, I am very happy that we kept reading because this was a very humorous story about the lives that our pets lead when we are not paying attention. By chapter 3, we were giggling. We particularly enjoyed the chapter about the treasures that each pet had been secretly stashing.
This story had some intense topics (Mrs. Food having to go to the hospital, a girl secretly living on her own, a military deployed caretaker, coin thieves, kidnapping a child, pets fearing going to an animal shelter), but manages to keep a light enough mood with the humor that the intense subjects were not a focus. Despite planning to steal things from someone, the pets are endearing and you can’t help but root for them.
This book gets a Page Pup thumbs up. We are both happy that this book found its way into the library bag on a day when we were struggling to find something that we felt like reading.
Family Unit: A human and pets that make a family. Mrs. Food (elderly woman), Butterbean (Long haired Dachshund), Walt (Oriental short hair cat), Oscar (mynah bird), Marco and Polo (rats).
Madison (school age girl) was living on her own [see Items of Interest #12 for details].
Wallace the rat was a pet rat, but now lives in vents. He decided to take to the vents when one of the children in his household squeezed his middle a bit too hard.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- The pets are concerned that they will have to leave their home, and maybe go to an animal shelter.
- Butterbean the dog can’t believe that Walt the cat was keeping secrets about lots of things.
- The Coin Man on the seventh floor creeps out everybody, including the pets and Wallace the rat.
Positive Items:
- The pets work well together, accept each other for who they are, and make plans that take advantage of each other’s strong skills. They leave their comfort zones for the good of a mission (e.g. the rats are willing to ride on a dog, the pet rats talk with a wild rat).
- While Marco and Polo, the pet rats, were afraid of wild rats, they found their courage to talk with Wallace, the vent rat. They became good friends.
- While Butterbean the dog feels a little betrayed that Walt the cat keeps secrets, Butterbean doesn’t let that get in the way of her friendship with Walt.
- The pets do not let their plans of being wealthy interfere with doing what is right. When they hear that Madison the girl is in trouble, they make a plan to rescue her, even if it means not being wealthy anymore.
Items of Interest:
- Mrs. Food slips in dog vomit and is knocked unconscious on page 2, so no time to get acquainted with anything before that. Walt the cat pushes the button to call for an ambulance at the end of the first chapter.
- Walt the cat’s threat for intruders is that she will go for the eyes.
- Butterbean is always willing to help by doing a nostril probe, which is licking inside someone’s nose.
- Oscar the bird watches a lot of television.
- Madison the girl gets hired by Bob, the building maintenance guy, or maybe just agrees to help take care of the pets while Mrs. Food is at the hospital.
- The pets are concerned that without Mrs. Food, they will need new homes and have to go to a shelter. They concoct a plan to become wealthy so they can buy their own food and stay where they are.
- Wallace was a pet rat, but is now wild and lives in the vents on his own. He made friends with the loading dock rats.
- The pets can push the elevator buttons. Walt the cat can use a computer.
- The pets manage to find someone with gold coins (Coin Man) and create a heist plan to steal his coins. Although the pets do get concerned when they discover the bag of coins is in a table with masks and guns.
- Chad the octopus lives in Mr. Axe Body Spray’s apartment. Walt and Butterbean pay him a visit and wind up having a conversation with him while he hangs out on the toilet. Chad doesn’t see any reason why he needs to help with a problem that isn’t his, but Walt convinces him to help. Chad has an interest in food that makes him agree to help.
- The pets successfully steal the gold coins when the Coin Man is out. The Number Two Man was in the apartment, and is worse for the wear after Walt and Butterbean create the distraction to get him into the hallway. Details were not given on what happened to his hair and what shredded his pants.
- Madison living on her own. Her aunt was deployed with the army, and had set up for Madison to live with a friend’s family. The grandma of the friend got sick, so they couldn’t take Madison anymore. Madison didn’t tell her aunt that she wasn’t with her friend, and she told her friend that her aunt found someone else to take her.
- Marco the rat thinks that Coin Man killed Polo because he kicked at Polo, and Polo went flying across the room.
- Coin Man kidnaps Madison because he thinks that she stole the coins. To rescue Madison, the pets decide to do an anti-heist and return the coins.
- Chad drugs the Number Two guy. Although he only gives him enough pill so he will be asleep for awhile.
- The Coin Man returns to his apartment to find Number Two Man with the coins, so he says that hs is going to make his problems go away. Number Two Man is afraid of that idea, but no details are given on what Coin Man planned to do.
- The police burst into the apartment. The coin thieves get arrested and Madison gets rescued.
- Mrs. Food returns to the apartment to gather her things. Mrs. Food is no longer supposed to live on her own.
- After being rescued from Coin Man’s apartment, the authorities were now going to find somewhere for Madison to live.
- Madison bursts into Mrs. Food’s apartment to return Polo the rat. Mrs. Food and Madison manage to quickly create a plan that means neither of them will live alone. They convince the elder care lady and the child care lady that Madison lived in Mrs. Food’s apartment all along. Then they quickly update the paperwork to cover their tracks.
- Mrs. Food receives the reward for the crime tip about Coin Man and Number Two Man.
- The news reports that most of the coins were recovered. Oscar wanted a contingency plan for themselves.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book Two – The Great Ghost Hoax (review)
- Book Three – The Great Vandal Scandal (review)
- Book Four (coming July 2024) – The Great Catnapping (review)
