The Case of the Missing Socks #2

By Tadgh Bentley

Meet Dino Detective and Awesome Possum: the sister-and-brother duo who are on the hunt for the next big case! Designed to engage early readers, this story combines charming characters with simple text, lively illustrations, and laugh-out-loud humor to help boost kids' confidence and create lifelong readers!

By veteran author-illustrator Tadgh Bentley comes a new series, chronicling the misadventures of a dynamic detective duo. When Awesome Possum notices yet another sock has gone missing in the wash, his suspicions are raised. He senses foul play. If they aren't in the laundry... who could be taking them? Feels like the perfect case for Dino Detective and Awesome Possum Private Eyes!

With full-color illustrations on every page, this humorous story is perfect for kids just beginning to read on their own. The short chapters, early vocabulary, and amusing illustrations make reading easy and fun! Exciting, easy-to-read books are the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Release date: Mar 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9780593093535

Tadgh Bentley

Tadgh Bentley is a picture book author and illustrator from the UK, now living in South Western Ohio with his wife, Emily, son, Fionn, and dog, Atticus. He is the author-illustrator of the Little Penguin series of picture books and I Can Read books, including Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups, as well as the picture books One Chicken Nugget and Samson: The Piranha Who Came to Dinner. You can visit him online at www.tadghbentley.com.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

MISSING SOCKS

It was a lovely morning in Berp. The sun had just risen, birds flew from branch to branch, and the postman was on his morning rounds . . .

 . . . when suddenly, a loud howl pierced the calm of the morning.

Noooooo!!!

Hello, dear reader. Here we go again.

It was Awesome Possum.

Dino! My sock! My Butch Malone sock! It’s missing!

Plant watched from the windowsill as Dino rushed to Possum’s side. Another one?

This isn’t just another one, Dino! I saved cereal box tokens for five weeks to get these socks. I’ve worn them so much that one had a giant hole in it.

Losing socks wasn’t normally a big thing—it happened every once in a while. But recently, the problem had been getting worse. At first it had been one or two a week. Now socks were disappearing so often that they couldn’t keep count.

For Dino, it wasn’t a big deal. If one sock was missing, she just mixed and matched. It was a great opportunity to try some fresh new looks.

For Possum, it was a different story. He wasn’t the kind of possum that walked around in odd socks. He liked his socks matching, thank you very much. The good thing was that, usually, pairing matching socks wasn’t a problem.

But now the worst had happened. The one pair that was different, his favorite Butch Malone socks . . . one was missing.