A bolstering summer adventure that balances drama and good feelings.
The all-animal characters of Operation: Cover-Up (2025) return for a summer with fun activities…and a few setbacks.
If the protagonists’ last adventure was all about attempting to fit in, their new one involves standing out. This trio of friends have different plans—attending comic design camp, collaborating with a talented DJ, and jump-starting a pro-gaming career—so Sy the blue cat proposes Operation: Make a Splash! “Let’s agree to knock these challenges out of the swimming pool!” he urges. Nick, a pink bunny, and Violet, a tan squirrel, are game, but things take a turn right away. Violet’s mother accidentally enrolls her in drama instead of comic design. Meanwhile, Sy’s father keeps proposing different activities that take Sy away from video game practice and time with friends; afraid of disappointing his father (who’s often away for work), Sy reluctantly sacrifices sleep to balance all his commitments. Nick is thrilled to rap with DJ French Toast, but he discovers she has a vicious mean streak, adding a level of tension and moral choice absent from the earlier installment as the victim of French Toast’s bullying rejects Nick’s help. Though the issues all resolve a shade too neatly, the journey is once more a satisfying one, with Godwin making room for his characters’ big emotions. His rounded cartoon art provides humor and much-needed sweetness even as the protagonists address complex conflicts.
A bolstering summer adventure that balances drama and good feelings. (Graphic fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781524890247
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
Taking a seat in first class aboard the graphic-novels-for-preteens train, this import features a carrot-topped lass who travels the starways with her piratical uncle Yellow Shoulders, foiling the plots of Supermuscleman, nefarious Chief Executive Dictator of the Universe. Presented in small sequential panels of brightly hued cartoon art and spacious dialogue balloons, Sardine’s adventures take her from the space prison Azkatraz to Planet Discoball (for a dance contest presided over by Empress Laser Diskette and her offspring, Prince Beejeez), from encounters with deadly, as well as thoroughly nerve-wracking, Honkfish to a deliciously violent round of “No-Child-Left-Behind-School II,” a virtual game. With nonstop action, humor geared to multiple levels of cultural awareness and the promise of more episodes to come, even readers stubbornly resisting the trendy format’s lure will find that, as Supermuscleman sneers shortly before gorily blasting his own foot, “Resistance is futile.” (Graphic novel. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-126-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
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