The Mystery of Meerkat Hill by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious meets two new students at school and finds out they are brother and sister.  She visits their home which is small but filled with love.  She meets Teb's meerkat pet, Kosi, and the rest of his family.  When the children tell her their cow has gone missing, guess who's going to help them find her?

Anchor Books sent me a copy of this to read for review (thank you).  The book was published in October, so you can check with your local bookstore for a copy.  This is the second story in this series, so look for the other one if you're planning on giving it as a gift.  That'll be twice as much joy for the recipient!

I am so very glad that Mr. Smith has started writing Precious Ramotswe mysteries for children.  I just love the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency stories and these are just as much fun, but about Precious' childhood.

As usual, Precious searches for clues and asks a lot of questions.  As she and her friends track the cow down, they are very proud of themselves for finding her.  There's one problem, though.  She's joined a herd of cows that belong to two other farmers.  They are taking theirs to market.  They ask them to "prove" she's their cow.  Uh oh...

The solution to this problem includes the meerkat and is very original.  Mr. Smith always makes his stories fun.

The story comes with a teacher's/reader's guide and a recipe for fat cakes (Botwanan doughnuts).  What more could you want?

Also, if you haven't read the adult series I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you should.  You're missing out on some good reading.