Wise foolishness from the master.
Dog Man takes on AI in his latest adventure. Guess who wins.
Since AI is built on predictive models, it hasn’t got a chance in the Pilkeyverse. The story gleefully whipsaws readers from Chief and Nurse Lady’s nuptials (not an eye will be dry after Li’l Petey and Molly’s rendition of the traditional wedding theme) to Dog Man’s encounter with a skunk (his subsequent tomato-juice bath turns him red, leading to his new Supa Buddy incarnation as the Scarlet Shedder) to Dog Man’s imprisonment for the crime of “moral turpitude” to Dr. Scum’s evil plot to “crush the world” with an army of AI robots to Petey’s poignant flashbacks to his childhood experience with homelessness. Add in some truly inspired Flip-O-Rama sequences and many terrible jokes, and it’s clear that Pilkey’s in top form here. In between gales of helpless laughter, readers will engage with serious themes. The author leverages the silliness to explore the algorithm’s dark side with the AI robots’ plot to “distract, divide, [and] dominate” humanity, using stratagems readers may well recognize from real life. Hilariously, the robots’ dialogue is rendered in a pixelated typeface straight from 1980s computing, undermining their boasts that they’re “SMARTER… / …FASTER… / …and STRONGER than” humans. A concluding page of thoughtful notes provides some additional context (and defines turpitude). Human characters are racially diverse; Dr. Scum is a sickly green.
Wise foolishness from the master. (dramatis personae) (Graphic adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781338896435
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Another zippy charmer—no Quibbles here.
The mad scientist Porch sisters finally face off against the abominable (and newly reanimated) Talon Sharktūth.
Following their escapades at the titular hotel in Secrets of the Purple Pearl (2025), sisters Dee-Dee, Eugenia, and Gertrude, who are adopted, find themselves swept up in another adventure with the Lavinias, Aunt Desdemona, and their 98-year-old Grantie Lettuce in ParisToo, which is “like Paris but smaller, and it’s in upstate New York.” Of course, the girls’ beloved mentor and teacher, Millicent Quibb, pops in and out, both warning and helping the trio. The Porches are Apocryphs, and each one has a unique power. Their sightseeing trip around ParisToo feels a bit too convenient, and as suspicious coincidences mount (along with sightings of members of the KRA, the shadowy cabal that revived Sharktūth), the girls suspect that something sinister is afoot. They eventually learn the truth of Sharktūth’s scheme, but can they stop him and the KRA before it’s too late? This third series entry satisfyingly answers many of the lingering questions of its predecessors. With all the zest and zeal of a caffeinated squirrel, this installment delivers the series’ patented quirkiness and giggle-generating plotlines, footnotes, and illustrations. Millicent Quibb wisely opines that “it takes much bravery, to be different…but really, if no one dared to do it, who would save the day?” This is an endearing tale of found family and believing in oneself, with an ending that hints at further adventures.
Another zippy charmer—no Quibbles here. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780316555814
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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