Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsPerfect Way to Get Child to Read
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
Potty humor, phonetic spelling, and funny plot lines make this an engaging, fun, and easy read for young readers. Flipping through it at the book fair, I put it back on the shelf--we have enough poop jokes in this house, thank you very much--but my kindergarten child begged me to buy it. As she read it to me the next day, I found myself laughing out loud at the silliness of it, starting when the doctor says, "You're a genius!" to the nurse who suggests they sew the police dog's head to the police man's body following an explosion (and creating Dogman).
The negative reviews harping on the way the author makes light of violence in this book (e.g. the bombing by villian/cat, Petey) is ridiculous. Every child's comic book hero is created by some violent act (do you remember Batman? Spiderman? Ironman?), but in this book, the author chooses to focus on the humor and ridiculousness of the hero, a Dogman, rather than the horror of the world in which he lives. Later books in the series build on previous plots. It's smarter than it seems.
My six-year-old child thought this book was hilarious, and she's now read the entire series multiple times. If you're looking for a way to pry a child away from a television screen on a rainy day, here it is.
