Author: Dav Pilkey
Illustrator: Dav Pilkey (color by Jose Garibaldi)
© Date: 2016
Publisher: Graphix
Pages: 221
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, graphic novel
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, learn how to draw characters
Summary from Book: There’s a new breed of justice in town…
Get ready for action…suspense…romance…and laffs!
Page Pig Thoughts: Considering how popular these books seem to be, I feel weird saying this, but I was not a fan of Dog Man. I really liked the flip back and forth pages that made images appear animated. I appreciated that even when things seemed rather bleak, things always seemed to work out for Dog Man. The idea of formatting a book like two young boys wrote/illustrated it is original and fun. However, the bad grammar really got on my nerves after awhile. A few times of using “a” when “an” is appropriate would not have bothered me, but after doing it over and over, the grammar distracted me from the storyline. Potty humor doesn’t bother me in general, but this book helped me learn that extreme potty humor is not my thing. All that being said, I find it interesting that one chapter of the story was dedicated to a theme of books making people smarter. This book challenged that notion for me.
Page Pup was not into this one either and does not feel compelled to pick up another Dog Man. Which makes me think that it will be awhile before we feel curious enough to try a Captain Underpants or Cat Kid.
Use caution with younger or sensitive children, the humor may not be appropriate and killer hot dogs may not settle well.
Family Unit: Dog Man seems to live at the police station
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Petey the cat is always escaping jail and devising plans to ruin life in the city.
- The police chief is frequently annoyed with Dog Man’s dog tendencies, like laying on his new couch.
Positive Items:
- Dog Man stays dedicated to his mission of protecting the city.
- After the police chief thinks that Dog Man is going to be crushed, he realizes how much he cares about Dog Man. He doesn’t even mind that Dog Man accidentally destroyed his couch.
Items of Interest:
- One of Petey the cat’s first plans is to take care of Officer Knight the human police officer and Greg the dog (police dog). Petey creates a bomb that the police duo tries to diffuse. An explosion leads to Greg the dog’s body dying and Officer Knight’s head dying. The dog’s head was then cut off and sewed onto the cop’s body. Dog Man is born.
- Dog Man is a bit naughty, he chews up dirty tissues, eats slippers, pees on the floor, and poops in the police chief’s office.
- Petey gets invisibility spray and uses his new power to pull everyone’s pants down. One of the flip the page animations is people’s pants going up and down.
- Petey realizes that Dog Man gets so smart because he reads books. Petey creates a device that zaps the words out of all the books in the world and off of street signs for fun. Petey’s meter shows that the world is “supa dumb.”
- A police officer carries some poop in his hand to show the police chief (wearing his underwear) that there was poop in his office. He carried it because he didn’t want to step in it. The police chief and officer celebrate their good idea to have Dog Man solve the crime by high fiving. They high five with poop hand and spray poop everywhere. Then they don’t know why it stinks where they are at.
- Dog Man solving the crime of who pooed in the office takes him to a sketch artist that draws someone’s butt.
- Someone kisses and marries a bag of trash because they are in love. After the ceremony, a horse is driving a carriage pulled by a person hooked up like a horse (because the world is supa dumb).
- Petey couldn’t get his new car repaired by mechanics because they were so dumb. Petey wanted the car filled up with gas, so the mechanics filled the seating area with gas. Then they drove the car around while wearing snorkeling gear (filled with gasoline). Then they light a cigar and explode the car.
- Dog Man finds Petey’s secret stash of books. He read and read until he got smart again. Then he gave the books to kids at school. Dog Man reverses the word zapping tool and the world goes back to regular intelligence.
- The next case has hot dogs that come alive. They are angry and rampaging, but everyone thinks that they look cute, which makes them more angry. In the end, dogs eat the living hot dogs.
- Petey had captured all of the dogs in town with a special trap. He lured them in with a special whistle. Then he had some pokey teeth that were coming down to squish all the dogs. Dog Man manages to get the giant gyro man (really a Philly cheese steak) to peel the top off the cage before thwarting gyro man from destroying the city.
- George and Harold are the kids that created the Dog Man comics for their friends at school. According to the teacher letters included in the story, the boys get in trouble for writing “comix” when they are supposed to be doing other things at school. George and Harold clearly do not agree with their teachers and plan to continue spending their time making comics.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- 13 books are in this series