Fun Reads Friday: Elvis and the Underdogs

I love whimsically written novels that take me on a silly adventure. I found all three—whimsy, silly, and adventure—when I discovered Elvis and the Underdogs and Elvis and the Underdogs: Secrets, Secret Service and Room Service, by Jenny Lee, in the middle grade section of my library.

Small, chronically ill and accident-prone Benji faints. Like, a lot. He wakes up in the hospital on a semiregular basis. Dr. Helen gives him a choice—he can either wear the world’s ugliest helmet, or he can get a service dog.

The helmet is big, green and ugly. Benji’s favorite nurse, Dino, tells him, “At least when you wear that helmet, you can’t get stuffed into a locker at school, because you probably wouldn’t fit because your head is too big now. Heck, I don’t even think they can put your head in the toilet with that thing on, so that’s a positive.”

Benji campaigns until Mom caves and allows a service dog instead.

Enter Elvis, a hairy, slobbery Newfoundland who stands four feet tall when on all fours, and weighs four times as much as Benji’s fifty pounds. Oh, and he talks—but only to Benji.

“Very nice to meet you, Benji,” Elvis says. “My name is Parker Elvis Pembroke IV. You may call me Parker Elvis Pembroke. Or Mr. Pemboke, if you prefer. So … this place is much smaller than I had imagined.”

The overly educated and rather stuffy giant canine trained his whole life to become the personal security dog for the president of the United States. He was supposed to live in the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., not in a modest family home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

Despite his disappointment at being delivered to the wrong house, Elvis takes his duties seriously and does his best to squeeze underneath Benji’s desk at school—which lifts the desk off the ground. And bossy Elvis does more than give Benji a soft place to land when he faints, protect him from bullies, and save his life during a severe allergic reaction; Elvis coaches his 10-year-old ward on how to make friends.

By the time the mix-up is corrected and the Secret Service whisk Elvis away to the White House, Benji has his pack (every dog needs his pack), the spelling bee whiz and computer geeky new kid, Alexander, and the very tall, star athlete Taisy, who wishes her dad would let her take a time out on the bench for a while.

In the second book, Elvis suspects possible pastry poisoning is afoot in the White House and sends a secret message that has Benji, Taisy and Alexander cooking up schemes to get to Washington. Kids and dogs are reunited in a romp that includes meeting, and possibly saving, the president himself.

These books are breezy, fun reads with very little objectionable content. They are not Christian books with church kids, but they represent good moral character, positive messages, and great humor. I hope that author Jenny Lee and illustrator Kelly Light are working on a third installment.