Dog Man Unleashed

Dog Man Unleashed

Author and Illustrator: Dav Pilkey

Genre: Fantasy Fiction (Graphic Novel)

Major Awards: None

Grade Level: 1-5

Summary: This book follows the police adventures of Dog Man, who craves justice and wants to put away villains. After the The Chief (Dog Man's boss) has a birthday, Dog Man realizes that the fish he got him as a present was in fact evil! During all of the commotion, Dog Man discovers that his arch-enemy, Petey the Cat has escaped from jail. Petey discovers that Dog Man has become smart by reading books, so he decides to take away all the words. Everyone seems to be uneducated until Dog Man saves the day by reversing Petey's actions.

Evaluation: Simply because I know children enjoy these types of books is enough for me to have it on my classroom shelves. I found the book very funny and entertaining (and I'm not even a child!). I think it is great to have something silly for kids to read so that their love for reading and books can grow.

When I looked at the grade levels online, I actually found websites that said first through twelfth. For the purposes of this blog, I chose first through fifth. The book is very funny and the humor is appropriate. The only thing that makes me dislike the book is the purposeful misspelling of words and grammatical errors.

I would definitely not use this book for a unit/lesson because it does not really lend itself to that kind of opportunity. I would have it in my class for students to read on their own, which I suppose would count as time on their reading log (if I have reading logs). Overall this was a great book!