Cynthia Rylant

G. Brian Karas

Case of the Climbing Cat

Sarah Sammis

The Case of the Climbing Cat is the second of the High Rise Private Eyes series by Cynthia Rylant. If you are like me, you know the title from the Backyardigans's episode: "The Masked Retriever" which aired near the end of the 2008-9 season.

Years before "The Masked Retriever" (by far my favorite episode) I received The Case of the Climbing Cat in a box of books. I registered the book on Bookcrossing and added it to my BTC database. I promptly forgot about it because my children were too young at the time for chapter books. When Don Austin had the book checked out and Tasha really wanted it my son asked it was a real book. My off the cuff response was "I doubt it" but I decided to check anyway. Imagine my surprise when I realized we owned a copy!

The plot is straight forward. It's a typical chapter book mystery, similar in level of difficulty to the Encyclopedia Brown books but with a better sense of humor.

Bunny Brown and Jack Jones share a high rise apartment where they run a small detective agency. For their second case (of nine) a neighbor saw someone run of with her binoculars and wants them back.

There's a twist behind the how and why of the binoculars' disappearance. As it's a short book I won't spoil the ending for you.

Case of the Climbing Cat

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