Theodore & Shawn: The Case of the Missing Carrots

Two cartoon rabbits in colorful capes, one white with a red cape holding a carrot, and one brown with a green cape using a magnifying glass to inspect the carrot.

Honesty. Do what’s right, even when no one is watching.

All Shawn wants is a carrot. But the fridge is empty, the neighborhood store is sold out, the big supermarket has none either — in fact, carrots have gone missing all over the world. This looks like a job for Hopper Junction’s favorite superhero duo.

Following the trail from an empty produce warehouse to a carrot farm, Theodore and Shawn stow away inside a shipping crate to discover where all the carrots are really going. The answer leads them to a hidden underground cavern — and to Queen Thorn, a porcupine with a crew of not-very-kind weasels and a scheme to hoard every carrot in the world, so that all the rabbits will have to do whatever she says.

Even surrounded by a mountain of stolen carrots, Theodore won’t take a single one — “we can’t steal,” he reminds Shawn, handing him an apple instead. With courage, teamwork, and one slightly miscalculated landing, our heroes help the police put a stop to the Queen’s plan and send the carrots back to the stores for everyone to enjoy. They even give a home to a lonely kitten named Pepper. And back on the sofa at last, Theodore hands Shawn the carrot he’s been waiting for all along — well earned.

A fun, fast-moving adventure about honesty and doing what’s right even when no one is watching — with a curious glimpse of a villain who may turn out to be more than she seems.

Readability

This is a picture book for a parent to read aloud to a child, not an early reader. The natural fit is ages 4–8 read aloud, and roughly 6–9 for independent reading — the short, simple sentences make it one of the easiest in the series to read on one’s own. At about 32 pages, Theodore and Shawn model real behavior worth talking about — refusing to steal even with carrots piled all around them, sharing what they have, working as a team, and giving a home to a lonely kitten. The adventure has a cartoonish superhero flavor: a scheming villain, a crew of bumbling weasels, a dramatic swing-and-crash landing, and police who arrive to set things right — all played for fun, with no real menace or scary content. One quiet moment, where the villain turns suddenly from sad to angry, is left unexplained on purpose (a thread for later books) and may spark a curious “why did she do that?” A warm, faith-filled, biblically based story about honesty and doing what’s right even when no one is watching.