Sweet Pea is a dog with an excellent sense of smell, a love of painting, and a penchant for finding stinky treats in the 
trash. When Parkville’s prized Golden Chew Bone, is stolen from the Parkville Art Museum after its return from Chewing River, it’s up to Sweet Pea, along with Lillian the museum director and choir members Casper and Jelly, to sniff out the culprit before the dogs of Parkville suffer too long from toothaches and bad doggie breath…
Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone is a graphic novel for early readers who love a fun mystery. Sweet Pea is the main character who wants to paint and research her family history but becomes the cozy mystery amateur sleuth due to her impeccable sense of smell.
A lot of time at the beginning of the graphic novel is devoted to introducing readers to Sweet Pea and her life, as well as the town of Parkville and its inhabitants, who all have their own quirks and personalities. These introductions not only contain humor and a little exposition, but also subtle character elements that all build to not only solving the mystery, but also working through grievances of the characters that led to the theft of the Golden Chew Bone. Many of the characters, who represent different animal groups, have their differences and argue and sometimes even accuse each other during the investigation, but no one character is inherently bad. The characters learn lessons in communication and empathy.
Even Sweet Pea as the heroine of the tale is flawed and must face some personal dilemmas. Throughout the story, Sweet Pea feels she’s not capable of solving the mystery, especially when an incident happens that puts her nose and its sniffing prowess out of commission. However, thanks to the help of others, including a relative through Sweet Pea reading through her diary, Sweet Pea is able to figure out another way to look at the mystery and eventually solve it. Sweet Pea also has a particular distrust of Wayne, the raccoon with whom Sweet Pea vies for treasures from the trash cans. This distrust eventually culminates and causes Sweet Pea to take a look at her own perceptions of people.
Sara Varon’s masterful visual storytelling is on full display here. Varon adds gentle lines and arrows to help guide new readers visually, but more experienced readers will appreciate the pacing of the story between panels and the expressiveness of Varon’s characters. The art is vibrant and filled with cute little nods to the animal qualities of Parkville’s inhabitants. The word bubbles break up the text effectively and the lettering—sans-serif and not all capitalized—is inviting for new readers.
Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone is a fun and cozy mystery graphic novel perfect for young readers who are either starting to read more independently or who are comfortable reading and are looking for an enjoyable read. The gentle messages of being kind to others and accepting others for who they are is never overbearing. It’s a testament to Varon’s narrative and visual storytelling that she introduces and explores these concepts within the framework of a mystery.
The publisher’s age rating for Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone is ages 6-10. This range is perfect for this story—new readers will feel welcomed and more confident readers will enjoy a good story. It’s definitely a must for young readers who enjoy mystery and humor. It is marketed as the first volume in a series, and it ends with hints of future mysteries for Sweet Pea to solve!
Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone  Vol. 1
By Sara Varon
Macmillan First Second, 2024
ISBN: 9781250348401
Company Age Rating:Â 6-10
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9), Tween (10-13)
