Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 6 – The Fashion Disaster

Carolyn Keene's The Fashion Disaster is a doggy Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds that starts at a fashion show where all the models have four legs.

What happens

It's the Cool Canines Fashion Show in River Heights Park, and Nancy's puppy, Chocolate Chip, is walking the runway in a little denim outfit. The star of the day is Lola, the Diva Dog. She's a big white poodle in a pink skirt and a tiara, with pink nail polish on her paws, and she signs "pawtographs".

Lola's owner, Maya, is very proud of her. She's also very rude about dogs from the rescue shelter, which doesn't go down well with the volunteers in orange T-shirts.

Bess gets asked to stand at the end of the runway and wave Lola's favourite biscuit (blue cheese and onion, and you can smell it a mile off). The music plays. Lola's cue comes. And Lola just sits there like a statue.

The biscuits in the basket are the wrong kind, a brand Lola can't stand. Maya decides Bess swapped them on purpose. Before long, boys on scooters are shouting "sneaky" at the girls and even their friends at school won't say hello.

So for once the Clue Crew are solving a case to clear their own names. The suspects include Lola's assistant, who stormed off in a huff, and the owner of a dog boutique who wanted Lola wearing her designs. Then there are the shelter volunteers Maya was so mean to.

There's a lovely silly streak running through it. George can't stop making dog jokes (Bess threatens to call her Georgia). Bess has built a Hairy Fairy Wand out of a hairbrush and sticky tape for picking dog hair off clothes. And at one point all three girls squash into Lola's dog crate to hide, and get licked.

A torn-up note found in Lola's trailer gives the girls a whole second mystery to puzzle over, and your reader can put the pieces back together with them.

Underneath the giggles there's a kind message about rescue dogs. It never preaches, but a dog-loving reader will probably come away wanting to visit a shelter.

What to read next

If your reader likes clothes as much as clues, Designed for Disaster has the three girls dreaming up their own fashion label in art class, and their sketches get sent off to a real New York designer.