Dog Man Brawl of the Wild Book Review

Dog Man Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey

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Genre: Fiction (Graphic Novel)

Introduction and Justification:

            Students love the Dog Man series. Dav Pilkey’s books series are a top seller at book fairs, amazon, and in book club flyers. These graphic novels include Flip-a-ramas, fun characters, and colored illustrations. As a future librarian it is important to read and have an idea of what students are interested in. This book helped me understand the funny, quick humor of Dav Pilkey and allowed me to discuss a popular graphic novel series with students.

Evaluation of book:

Graphic novels are told primarily through illustrations and speech bubbles. Dav Pilkey therefore uses his illustrations to define the characters. He shows how Dog Man came to be. The characters personality is seen through the illustrations. For example, Yolay uses her “people skills” to (Tunnell, Jacobs, Young, & Bryan) solve problems (Pilkey, 2019, p. 116). The reader however sees that her people skills are her strength. The pictures give the readers clues to the characters and what will happen. For example, when you see Petey scratching at the end of the book you know that the fleas are on him. The words do not need to say this. He also shows character feelings. On page 143 the dogs are looking sad and upset. Even though the Chief is discussing leaving them you can see that Dog Man is not going to let that happen (Pilkey, 2019).

            The setting of the story shifts and changes in the book. The settings can be seen in the illustrations. The book not need to explicitly say where thy are and what time of day it is. For example, when they are rescuing the dogs the reader can see it is night and the dogs were sledding up a hill. The movie theatre area can be seen with them in the movie theatre. As the settings shift the illustrations shift as well. The backgrounds go from lift to dark in the illustrations.

One of the most popular features of the Dog Man series is the flip-o-rama. The flip-o-rama makes the book into a flip book (Pilkey, 2019, p. 18). This allows the book to depict action happening in the story. These action-packed scenes become moving pieces of art. Although, the flip-o-rama is the most obvious action the whole book is full of action. From Dog Man to throwing up on Chief to the guard falling in the hole.  The pictures show small movements allowing the reader to see what is occurring.  Pilkey understand how his book is action and even has a mini movie in his book showing how easy the book can be transferred into a cartoon.

Response:

            (a)When reading the title of the book I thought this book would mirror Jack London’s Call of the Wild. When I was in middle school, we had Battle of the Books. One of the books was Call of the Wild. I was so excited to see if it was like what I remembered. When reading the book though the similarities were minimal. This however, did not diminish from the quality of the literature.  (d) The book had some excellent features and points. The book gave an excellent lesson on believing in yourself. When Petey is feeling down Li’l Petey goes to help his Papa. As Li’l Petey is telling the same punchline to a joke over and over Petey realizes he must grow and become better (Pilkey, 2019, p. 172). This lesson is important for everyone to hear. We must be dynamic not static. (e) The book was full of great lessons about accepting others, turning over a new leaf, and becoming better. (b) However, one part was not positive. They have a Yolay use violence to solve her problems. This can be taken two ways. The first is that women can be strong, the second is violence is an answer. When reading this book, I would ask students to think about their people skills. Is hurting someone a good people skill. The book would lead to a great discussion on behavior.

Conclusion:

            Dav Plikey has earned his reputation fore creating engaging graphic novels that students will love. His characters, and setting are clear throughout the entire book. He also uses his graphic novels to depict action. The read feels like they are watching a cartoon. Through his humor he is also able to teach life lessons to students, such as being kind, believing in yourself, and that change takes time and persistence. This is must read book for students who love graphic novels.

Works Cited

Pilkey, D. (2019). Dog Man Brawl of the Wild . China: Scholastic.

Tunnell, M. O., Jacobs, J. S., Young, T. A., & Bryan, G. (n.d.). Children's Literature, Briefly. Pearson.

Williamson, O. M. (n.d.). How to Write a Reaction Paper or Reader Response. Retrieved from Reader Response: http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310link/readerresponse.htm