Friday Flashback: Something Queer Series

Lovely Little Shelf has a Flashback Friday feature. Here's mine for this week:


Elizabeth Levy's Something Queer series is about a salami-loving basset hound, Fletcher, who helps his owner Jill and her friend Gwen solve mysteries.

I think these books started my love of basset hounds. Now, 20+ years later, I have these two crazies.

Sadly, neither one has a map of the world in their spots like Fletcher does. Nor have they helped me solve any mysteries. However, they do enjoy salami.

I remember reading Something Queer at the Haunted School in 2nd grade. Several years ago, I thought about those books again and my friendly librarian helped me figure what series it was based on what I could remember: they were mysteries with illustrations, the basset hound, and the girl that clicked her braces (Jill).

Mysteries are one of my favorite genres. In addition to the basset hound and the mystery, the books have wonderful illustrations by Mordicai Gerstein. The books are for young readers. As I mentioned, I read them in 2nd grade. The mysteries aren't too complex, but the stories are cute and funny.

Sadly, these books are out of print. Levy does have a newer series of Fletcher mysteries in print. These book don't have Gwen and Jill, nor do they have quite as many illustrations. I search used bookstores and books sales and now have most of the series in my collection.