Dog Man by Dav Pilkey takes the baton from Captain Underpants

If you have a young reader then you know Captain Underpants. He’s the erstwhile principal who fights evil while wearing his underwear and is often assisted by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, two fourth grade students. It’s also the publishing juggernaut that’s seen millions of books in dozens of languages, a feature film in the summer of 2017 and Dog Man is the character that started it all more than 40 years ago.

Dog Man was the first proper character that Dav Pilkey created. He did this when he was in the second grade, just doodling in class. His teacher caught him doing this; promptly reprimanded him and he started drawing more. Fast forward and Pilkey is one of the go-to authors in children’s literature and his original idea, Dog Man, has a series of books all his own.

Series might be a little premature. Dog Man is out and its sequel is due to be release in January 2017. However, give the rabid reception that Dog Man had when our 6 year old got his paws on it this is a book that will easily light up the first through fourth grade set.

Dog Man is the result of a life saving surgery that puts Greg, the police dog’s head on his cop companion’s body. The tag line says that he’s part man, part dog and all hero!  Our oldest son lay on his bed and read half of Dog Man before taking a break.

This is a cartoon strip, as Harold and George (from Captain Underpants) would draw it. It’s in full color and is printed on glossy, high quality paper. The art is the same as you’ve come to expect from Captain Underpants, it’s big, silly and children love it.

The fact that this is a graphic novel and not a book, in the typical sense of Captain Underpants, is the biggest difference for fans of Dav Pilkey’s work. The content in the book is similar to what parents have come to expect from them. There are more than a couple poop jokes, silly gags about a cat stealing all of the books in town, a hot dog and giant Philly cheese steak getting into an argument and more.

There are a couple of spelling and grammatical errors that fit the context of a comic book that’s supposedly written by a 4^th grader. I understand why some parents would get upset or not let their kids read Dog Man because of this, but the enjoyment and love of reading that they’ll experience far outweigh these couple instances of non-perfect English.

Children will love Dog Man and its price point of only $9.99 for a thick, full color book is a good deal too. It’s also worth nothing that our son liked Dog Man more than Ook and Gluk, a similarly drawn series of books featuring characters by Pilkey.