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  • Published: 4 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9780143774655
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $17.99

Hound the Detective



Meet Hound, a brilliant detective who ALWAYS solves his case. But this latest trail of clues has him perplexed - could it be that he's missed something important?

Search for clues hidden in the pictures and help Hound to solve the riddle in this delightful return to the world of Puffin the Architect.

I’m Hound! And I’m a sleuth.
I solve all types of cases.
I sniff and snuff until my nose
detects the clues and traces.

Missing jewels, stolen cars —

I always solve the crime.
My latest case arrived by post.
Ha ha — detecting time!

This gorgeous, multi-layered and engaging whodunnit by an award-winning writer has a delightful surprise at the end. Readers will love studying each action-packed illustration, poring over the details of Hound’s secret passages and map, spotting the adorable animals lurking in the pictures, and finding the caterpillar hidden on every page.


Read all the books in Kimberly Andrews' award-winning series!

  • Published: 4 August 2020
  • ISBN: 9780143774655
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $17.99

About the author

Kimberly Andrews

Kimberly Andrews is a trained biologist and geologist who grew up in the Canadian Rockies. She has lived and worked in New Zealand, Borneo and the UK. In London, she worked for The House of Illustration, whose main ambassador is Quentin Blake. She also worked at the Natural History Museum in the live Butterfly House and also behind the scenes, assisting the curation of mammal specimens in the dry stores.

Kimberly's picture book illustrations have been widely acclaimed. She was awarded Storylines Notable Book Awards for Tuna and Hiriwa by Ripeka Takotowai Goddard (2016) and Song of the River by Joy Cowley (2019).

In 2019, the first story Kimberly wrote and illustrated, Puffin the Architect (2018), won the Russell Clark Award for Illustration and was a finalist for Best Picture Book in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. It also won a Storylines Notable Picture Book Award as well as the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Children’s Book. It has been published in five languages, with rights sold to Romania, Russia, China and Taiwan.

More stories followed featuring favourite animal characters from Puffin the Architect's charming world: Hound the Detective, highly commended by Storylines and a finalist for the Best Picture Book Award in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2021, and Moose the Pilot, a Storylines Notable Picture Book 2021.

Kimberly lives with her husband and two young daughters in a shipping-container house near Wellington, where she illustrates and writes, and runs her business Tumbleweed Tees, screen-printed clothing featuring her illustrations of New Zealand plants and wildlife.

Also by Kimberly Andrews

See all

Praise for Hound the Detective

[I]f you love solving things, this is the perfect book for you! It will make you puzzle, and then it will put a smile on your face!...Kimberly has created an extra cool story that is fun to read, exquisitely illustrated, and leaves you feeling good. At the moment the good feeling that books can give you is worth its weight in gold. Fabulous!

Paula Green, Poetry Box

this new tale will delight young readers in story-telling time or to read themselves in this interactive solve-it-mystery... Puffin features too in amongst fabulous illustrations.

Kapiti News

The first of Puffin the Architect’s clients to go solo, Hound is modelled on the author’s family dog, a three-legged beagle who overcame his disability...our sleuth is out and about in an English village, following clues, making lists and drawing maps in his notebook. Who will be next?

Ann Packer, NZ Listener Best Children's Books 2020

Hiding bear and a baking platypus, suspicious packages and the village map enthralled the gang as they tried to follow Hound’s paw steps and place the clues he’s sniffed out. The elaborate illustrations truly set the scene from beginning to end, and beginning to end again… and again.

Ronnie Swainston, Kidspot

According to the Year 4 pupils at Mangatawhiri School, who range in age from 7 – 9, this book will appeal to kids aged 5 – 10 as well as older kids and adults who like mysteries. It features Hound, a dogged detective who always solves his cases but, facing his latest whodunnit, is puzzled by the clues before him. Can readers help him? The clever rhyming language, which repeated and grew word patterns, and the pictures, packed full of detail, interesting colours and drawings of animals from all over the world, engaged nearly all those who read it and they enjoyed tracking down clues.

Dionne Christian, Kete

...charming and ingenious...I think kids will love this book. They will pore over its pages (for ages!) looking for the clues that thread the story together in such a clever way.

Vasanti Unka, Magpies

Kimberly Andrews wrote and illustrated the stunning picture book Hound the Detective (Puffin). It’s a spinoff of Puffin the Architect and set in the same world – imagine Grand Designs, except the clients are animals. Andrews is extraordinarily skilled with light and perspective...Her books are happy and clever, with strong stories to string the art together. You’ll still be spotting fresh details on your 74th read-through. There is an arm-pump moment at the end of Puffin the Architect where it’s casually revealed that the kick-ass puffin architect is female and there’s an equally cool element in Hound, but I’m not going to spoil it.

Catherine Woulfe, The Spinoff, 'Twenty books that were a tonic in 2020'

Awards & recognition

Storylines Notable Picture Book Award

Highly commended  •  2021  •  Highly Commended

New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults

Finalist  •  2021  •  Best Picture Book

Discover more

Video
Work in progress: Hound the Detective by Kimberly Andrews

Kimberly Andrews shows us the process of creating the rough illustration for one of her favourite spreads from her book, Hound the Detective. Learn more about the book here: https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/hound-the-detective-9780143774655

Article
Hound the Detective activity pack

Search for clues hidden in the pictures and help Hound to solve the riddle in this delightful return to the world of Puffin the Architect.