The Guide Dog Mystery

The Guide Dog Mystery

By Gertrude Chandler Warner

Benny - He is one of the Alden children. He is six years old..

Jessie - She is one of the Alden children. She is twelve years old.

Henry - He is one of the Alden children. He is 14 years old.

Violet -She is one of the Alden children. She is ten years old.

Grandfather Alden - He is the grandfather of the Alden children. They live with him.

Jason Peters - He is a trainer at the Greenfield Guide Dog School.

Mrs. Carter - She is the owner of the Greenfield Guide Dog School.

Ginger - She is a Golden Retriever who is a guide dog.

Mrs. Davis - She is a woman who used to own Ginger.

Gerard Dominick - He is a man who wants to buy Ginger.

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The setting of the story is the small town of Greenfield and the Greenfield Guide Dog School.

Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny Alden had gone to downtown Greenfield to pick up some things for dinner. Outside the grocery store, they meet a man who was blindfolded being led by a golden retriever. The man was Jason Peters, who worked at Greenfield Guide Dog School owned by Mrs. Carter whom they soon met. Mrs. Carter went to school with their Grandfather Alden. Mrs. Carter talks with Grandfather Alden and asks him if the children can come help out at the guide dog school for a week. Grandfather says yes, and the children pack and are dropped off at the school.

At the school, while Jason was showing the children how he trained a guide dog, a big black car drove up and a woman got out. Ginger ran to the woman. The woman, Mrs. Davis used to own Ginger. Jason and Mrs. Davis talked. Jason was angry that she was there. The woman left.

Anna Chang, a blind girl came to the school to start working with a guide dog. The children quickly befriended Anna. While Jason was talking to Anna, Benny saw a well-dressed man hiding in the woods. Anna received Ginger as he new guide dog. Later, a man came to Mrs. Carter's office when the children were working there and wanted to buy Ginger. The children told him he had to talk to Mrs. Carter.

The children told Mrs. Carter about the man. Later that night Benny woke up because the dogs were barking. Violet thought she saw a person looking in the windows of the kennel. The next day they told Jason who said it was probably a rabbit or other animal that scared the dogs and Violet had probably saw a shadow. Mrs. Davis came back in her limousine but suddenly sped off before entering the school grounds. This troubled Jason.

The mysterious man who had tried to buy Ginger returned. His name was Gerard Dominick. He tried to offer the children money for Ginger. The children went to Jason's room to tell Jason. They overheard Jason talking to someone on the phone. Jason was embarrassed when he discovered the children outside his room and that they may have overheard him. The children suspected that Jason was hiding something. That night the children were again awakened by the dogs barking. When they looked out the window and saw someone with a flashlight moving through one of the rooms in the building across from them.

The next day when the children went to the kennel, it was locked. When the children went to Jason's room, Jason said his key was missing. The children offered to help look for the key while Jason went to feed the dogs. While searching Jason's room, Benny found a crumpled note in the wastebasket. The note was from Mrs. Davis asking Jason to meet her at Joe's Restaurant at 11:00. They realized that it was Jason's room they had seen the flashlight in the night before. Benny asked Jason if he went into town at night and he said he did and last night he had gone to meet Charlotte Davis at a restaurant but she never showed up.

That night the children decided to stay up and watch out the window to see if anything strange happened. While Benny was watching, he saw someone trying to break into the kennel. The children all ran and got Jason. When they got to the kennel the door was open. They turned on the light to see someone duck behind a box. Then the person ran out the back door and into the woods. After they made sure all the dogs were safe, they realized that whoever broke in was after Ginger. Jason offered to keep watch at the kennel for the rest of the night and did not want the children to help. The children were still certain that Jason was up to something.

The next day the children and Jason took Anna on her first trip downtown with Ginger. They went to the college where Anna would be going in the fall. The children had also planned a picnic. While showing Anna around the town, Benny