Dog Diaries – Mission Impawsible

James Patterson and Steven Butler's Dog Diaries - Mission Impawsible is a waggy, giggly adventure for 7 year olds about a dog who's sure he's off to Hollywood.

What happens

Junior is a scruffy rescue dog who lives with his "pet human" Ruff, Ruff's little sister Jawjaw and Mom-Lady. He tells you everything, very loudly, often in CAPITAL LETTERS. This is the third of his diaries, and he says so himself right at the start.

One afternoon Junior overhears Mom-Lady say the word Hollywood, and he's off. He plans his packing. He plans to sing his way to fame and build a mutt-mansion for all his pooch-pals. He can hardly bear the wait until Saturday.

Then the dog guys arrive in a battered truck, and Junior and his friends are driven away to Barking Meadows. It's a very posh doggy retreat, with a spa for tail curling and a bubbling pool.

There's just one problem. They only serve vegetables. Carrots and celery! Lentils and Brussels sprouts! Parsley puffs as treats!! Before long Junior is plotting a great escape.

The whole thing is written as a diary with times at the top ("4:25 p.m."), so it rattles along. Junior has his own words for everything. The TV is the picture box, the sofa is the comfy squishy thing, and the bathroom is the Rainy Poop Room. Working them out is half the fun.

Be ready for a lot of wind. There's a French bulldog, a pile of sprouts and a very small dog launched into the air. If your reader is at the stage where a fart joke is the funniest thing in the world, they'll be howling (probably louder than Junior).

Under all the silliness Junior adores his family. He even wonders whether he's been sent away for being a BAD DOG, and it's quite sweet how much he misses them.

Junior catches you up on everything at the start, so it works fine as a first Dog Diaries book.

What to read next

If Junior's voice has them giggling, Happy Howlidays comes just before this one in the series. It's the Christmas diary, full of Fangs Giving and Saint Lick.