Reviews

Dog Man und Cat Kid by Dav Pilkey

blairewithane's review against another edition

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4.0

Another fun one to take turns reading with my six year old. He and I are both fond of lil Petey.

wordnerd153's review against another edition

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3.0

A tad more potty humor than the previous books, but still entertaining and fans of the series will love it.

mbrevesz's review against another edition

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5.0

I love when John Steinbeck references are mixed in with fart jokes.

roary47's review against another edition

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5.0

I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again. Dog man is my get up and go again book series. I have been in love with this series. It’s funny, it has a depth to it with classical stories, and it’s feel good on top of all the laughs.

skrajewski's review against another edition

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4.0

Big fans of Cat Kid over here!

libraryelf's review against another edition

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5.0

So many great pop culture references.

danieljoseph's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

larrys's review against another edition

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2.0

Has Dav Pilkey sold rights to the movie franchise, because if so that would make this book truly meta. In this story Dog Man gets his own movie. A more muscular version of himself turns up, and a sexified version of Sarah Hatoff turns up too. This Spanish-speaking stand-in immediately becomes an object of sexual desire (and I wonder what Latina readers think about that particular stereotype.) Dog Man enjoys getting his stomach rubbed by this sexy Spanish speaking lady and both he and Kitty bury themselves into her breast at one point. The reader is invited to find her sexy as well. The implied reader here is therefore narrowed down to a heterosexual boy, as per usual. I don't think my nine-year-old daughter had been fully aware that she wasn't the intended audience. I'm reminded of that time Barack Obama disappointed by making a speech using the phrase 'our wives and daughters'. Suddenly all the women in the audience realised he hadn't been talking to them at all. (Feels churlish to make one single complaint about Obama at this point, but the point stands.) This sexy woman needs saving at one point, after getting herself into bother. But in the end it's her who dishes out the (mock-but-also-serious) moral lesson. These are the roles female characters are limited to: object of desire, girl to be saved, and finally, the summer-upperer of lessons.

These Dog Man storylines do follow on from each other, and Kitty has been living at Dog Man's since the last in the series. Petey dresses as an old woman posing as a nanny in order to steal him back. I seem to be the only one who has a problem with the proliferation of this trope in middle grade stories -- the gag in which a male character will dress as a femme character in order to deceive. But then again, not everyone has read *Whipping Girl* by Julia Serrano. If you want to understand the problem I have with this trope, better to just read that entire book.

This story has the same madcap action adventure and the same density of gags and will no doubt continue to please a wide audience. Dav Pilkey is a great gag writer. He could be wholly original if he wanted to. Or maybe he's forced to pump these out a bit too fast. I don't know.

I do get pessimistic, about what 'broad appeal humour' looks like in 2018, and the fact that every series which starts off pretty well eventually relies upon the sort of lazy jokes I can't stand.

kriziaannacastro's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

shannonharty's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5