Bunnicula

Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery was published by Atheneum Books in 1979 and was written by Deborah Howe and James Howe, with illustrations by Alan Daniel. It was the first book in the series, and it arrived at a point when children's fiction was beginning to include horror-comedy and gentle parody. The novel is written in short chapters and narrated by the dog, which lets the authors treat the family's ordinary life with affection while the cat supplies the paranoia.

The joke is that a vampire rabbit is investigated with the methods of a detective story. Chester gathers clues, builds a case and attempts to act on it; Harold eats, sleeps and reports. The vegetable evidence is genuine and also explainable, and the book keeps both readings open for long enough that young readers can work out what is happening themselves. The humour comes from the gap between the household pets' intelligence and the family's total ignorance of the situation.

The series continued through further titles written by James Howe, along with a cartoon adaptation, and the first book was listed by the National Education Association among its Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children in a 2007 poll. It is a short read, aimed at readers of about seven to ten, and it is one of the few children's books from that decade that still works as a mystery rather than simply as a joke.