Every dog has his day. Benny Bensky, a black mutt, thinks his has arrived at the start of the summer vacation. Instead of spending his time home alone chewing up cushions, he’ll have the company of his adored owner, nine-year-old Rosie Bensky. But Benny has many dismal dog days of summer to endure before he triumphs in Ottawa author Mary Borsky’s first novel, a comic mystery for middle readers.
Who better than Benny, the eater even of gas bills, to test the taste appeal of their perogies, think the Benskys, owners of the formerly packed but now deserted Perogy Palace restaurant. But one sniff tells Benny he’d rather not. Enraged, Mr. Bensky sends him off to obedience school.
Benny reluctantly joins the pack of cowering dogs at the school run by doggy dominatrix Viola Pin. As much as he tries to put a leash on his clumsily affectionate energy, he can’t. She expels him, proclaiming him “completely defective.” Then claiming he tried to bite her, she has the police declare Benny a public nuisance and he’s given 24 hours to get out of town. As it turns out, Ms. Pin, who has her eye on the site of the Perogy Palace for her new deluxe animal academy, is also behind the Benskys’ escalating culinary troubles.
While Borsky’s confident rendering of the Benskys and Ms. Pin has comic snap, her handling of Benny’s narrative voice is strained, bordering at times on Disney-style cutesiness. Linda Hendry’s comically detailed illustrations zanily portray the antics of the irrepressible Benny.