Laugh-out-loud humor, a thickening plot, and an unforgettable leading man—this playful series just gets better and better.
A fish boy gets lost on a field trip.
As he and his classmates tour Olde Town Barnacle Bay, Sashimi cracks jokes and makes fart noises with his sopping wet shoes (he’s half fish and has to stay damp, after all). Fed up, his teacher sends him back to the bus. But he boards the wrong vehicle: It’s air-conditioned, the students who eventually join him are wearing uniforms, and there’s a bald-headed boy who looks suspiciously like him (Sashimi has a bright-orange hairless fish face) staring him down. These upper-crust elementary schoolers spot the odd fish-boy out—“EWWWW!” “He’s poor!”—and abandon him by the roadside. Thankfully, Sashimi’s classmates launch a rescue mission. Somewhere in the hullabaloo, Sashimi licks a slug, sending him on a psychedelic trip; here, the art inventively shifts to a series of photos depicting felt versions of the book’s characters. Absurd action sequences and goofiness perfectly pitched to tween sensibilities run the show here, but the series’ story arc advances cleverly, too. Barnacle Bay’s mysteries deepen, Sashimi gets an important clue about the legendary beast that supposedly lurks in the nearby waters (and potentially his own origins), and his friendships—even with his stiff-lipped field-trip partner, Chloe—are strengthened. Santat’s cartooning remains effortlessly ebullient, keeping readers turning pages at a breakneck speed. Human characters vary in skin tone.
Laugh-out-loud humor, a thickening plot, and an unforgettable leading man—this playful series just gets better and better. (Graphic fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781250359964
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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