This engagingly silly story will find a ready and willing audience in middle-grade readers.
In Benton’s middle-grade graphic novel, a young bear wants to be the ultimate bad guy.
Clyde is one bad bear cub from Cubville. He’s the type of guy to spray-paint BUTT on a tree or to throw his Grammy Turtle into the lake. He’s definitely too aggro for Cubville, so he plans to head to Grizzly City and join up with all the other lowlifes there. But on his way, the rough and tough Clyde gets knocked down by, of all things, a sweet butterfly, who introduces herself as Mellisa Sue. One brief hospital stay later, Clyde is finally back on his way to Grizzly City—this time accompanied by Mellisa, whether he likes it or not. But Clyde can barely get past the city welcome sign before being scared by the local residents, so much so that he can’t stop farting in fear. So, back to Cubville Clyde goes, now to save his Grammy Turtle from Fish Jail. As much as Clyde wants to be a tough guy (“I’m bad to the bone, man”), he keeps falling into situations where he ends up helping people, especially with Mellisa following him around and goading him into doing the right thing. Maybe he can agree to be a “bad good guy” in the end. Just maybe. In this appealing adventure, geared toward the younger end of the middle-grade age range, Benton delivers an endearing story of a bear who just wants to be bad and cool. The colorful illustrations and menagerie of animal characters are amusing and visually appealing and will definitely catch the attention of younger and reluctant readers. The silly jokes, such as Mellisa’s and Grammy Turtle’s obsession with thermoses, and ridiculous situations, like the revelation that Fish Jail is just being tied to a rock with a string, help to make this an incredibly readable and amusing graphic novel.
This engagingly silly story will find a ready and willing audience in middle-grade readers.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781545823552
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios/Papercutz
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts.
Beachcombers and shell seekers, gather ’round and meet Shelby and Watts, Planetary Investigators.
When Fred the hermit crab can’t find a new, larger shell to move into, he seeks out the “brilliant brains” of Shelby and Watts. Shelby, a fox, is the detective in the duo, and Watts, a badger, loves facts, adding simple fun ones—about hermit crabs, tides, tide-pool dwellers, how shells are used, etc.—throughout the story. Watts also loves to catalog clues in his notebook. In fact, the first mystery that Shelby solves is that of Watts’ lost notebook. Young readers can watch Shelby investigate, solve, and explain her deductive process, all while learning to carefully examine all the details in each graphic panel. Once the missing shells are found, it’s “time for the hermit crab shuffle,” in which the members of a colony of hermit crabs all line up and trade up to larger homes. Final pages include “Earth-Saving Tips from Shelby & Watts,” such as taking pictures of shells instead of collecting them, eating seafood from sustainable sources, and cleaning up the beach. The seven chapters are of varying length, but with several one-panel pages and many pages with low word count, the book is shorter than it appears, which should be a confidence boost for young readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Models attention to detail and deductive reasoning in a fun beach setting, complete with interesting facts. (Graphic early reader/mystery. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20531-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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