'#1 Operation Mailman' is the first in a series of three stories (at present) featuring Pablito Bandito, the fastest chihuahua in the mid west, better known as General Pablo to his 'troops'. Illustrated with black and white line drawings by the author, Tomi Hall, in collaboration with Mar Cholula, this is a crazily funny chapter book for young readers. Living on a farm in Illinois, Pablo and his 12 permanent 'soldiers' run a military-style regime to get all the rescue pups that the farm owners take in into shape for rehoming, with varying degrees of success! Operation mailman is a scheme Pablo puts in place to get the new postie, who doesn't like dogs, replaced again by Gene, their previous one, who always brought treats and made a fuss of them but who has now retired. It is a three-pronged 'attack', starting with an aggressive barking reception followed next time by a silent rejection. At least that's the plan! The final prong, liberally decorating the driveway up to the farmhouse with doggy poop, nearly defeats their object, however, when it is not the postman who is the first to arrive. This book is thoroughly entertaining and the incongruous image of a chihuahua giving orders to Alsatians and the like is hilarious, as is the chaos that only large numbers of mismatched dogs can cause. But will they overcome in the end and achieve their goal...you'll have to read it to find out!
Drena Irish, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador
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