Only chuzzlewits will be less than delighted.
Humbug! Not only has feline supergenius Petey escaped from prison, but an evil psychokinetic fish is raising up an army of animate apartment buildings. What the dickens is Dog Man to do?
Fictive co-authors George and Harold dish up another heap of “mirth and woe” for their dog-headed police officer—featuring, to no Pilkey fan’s surprise, slapdash plotting, sly jokes, alimentary humor, and Flip-O-Rama sequences aplenty. Actually, in a major twist, Petey the cat takes center stage thanks to Li’l Petey. This is a mini-me clone who refuses to be evil even when presented with a “supa-robot” 80-Hexotron Droidformigon wielding “80-HD Power” and who transforms Petey from supervillain to self-sacrificing parent, intoning “It is a far, far better thing I do…” in the climactic clash. Said clash is inevitable after tiny but powerful Flippy sets out for revenge with a tank of “Living Spray Gas” that converts buildings to hungry monsters capable of eating (and, it turns out, ralphing up) anything in their path. But L’il Petey saves both day and the thoroughly diverse human cast by winning over the furious fish with a homemade picture book and, with his jailbird dad (temporarily) back behind bars, ends up Dog Man’s cherished ward. Step-by-step instructions for drawing major characters and monsters, plus a tail-wagging plug for reading to canine audiences, cap a sequel that ably fulfills the 2015 opener’s great expectations.
Only chuzzlewits will be less than delighted. (Graphic science fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93521-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
Piles of excitement.
Gifted young gamers team up to thwart an interstellar prankster’s scheme to blast humanity into oblivion with toxic gas from Uranus, the smelliest planet anywhere.
Uh-oh…it seems that evil Baron Buttz is planning something involving Poopious Maximus, a giant mound of “fake dog doody,” and a Mega Whopper Whoopee Cushion. Down swoops Newton Bean, commander of the Superpixel Ninja Officer Tweens of Space, to recruit Rusty Crumb, a human gamer with awesomely overdeveloped “thumbceps,” and his fierce little sister, Kitty, to help get to the bottom of what’s going on. The stage is set for boss battles and actual ones, with the two gamers firing up their Super Game Dude consoles to tackle swarming hordes of Buttz bots and the sneering Prince of Pranks in both real and cyber space. Distinguishing between the two realms by using smooth or pixelated lines (but drawing them in much the same way), Mansch packs his cartoon panels with real and virtual space action and rapid patter on the way to a fart of interplanetary proportions that blasts the scheming schemer to a proper comeuppance—or, as one minion gleefully puts it, “Buttz is on Uranus! Hahaha!” Bean has light brown skin; his nemesis and the rest of the button-eyed human cast present as white.
Piles of excitement. (Graphic science fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781513141527
Page Count: 224
Publisher: West Margin Press
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Funny but ultimately ineffective as either a joke book or a story.
In this romp through the multiverse, Angleberger asks readers to imagine a universe where they are a two-headed chicken.
It sounds like the start of a silly joke. One head—the reader’s—is generally very stupid; the other—belonging to the reader’s sister—is generally very smart. The alleged plot hops universes with every chapter as the eponymous plucky cluck attempts to escape an “enraged moose named KERNEL ANTLERS” whose mission in life is to fry and eat the chicken. Various bizarre creatures and historical figures offer obfuscating commentary on the chicken’s shenanigans or guidance, and finally, a hypothetical reader, fed up with their aimless escapades and thwarted jokes, threatens to abandon the book and erase the chicken from existence in every multiverse if they don’t buck up and face the moose. Will our intrepid hero prevail? Readers may never know—at least, not in their universe. Scattered self-deprecation may not have been unwarranted, as there’s very little within the book to capture readers’ attention (aside from reading on to learn whether a plot will ever coalesce). Myriad potentially exciting worlds and plotlines are touched on but never explored, and the characters are too flat to allow readers to become invested in their plights. The bold, expressive art, almost reminiscent of margin doodles, does the lion’s share of the storytelling. A few interactive pages offer amusing diversions but feel rather out of place.
Funny but ultimately ineffective as either a joke book or a story. (author’s note) (Graphic novel. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2321-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
