Dog Man

Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
by Dav Pilkey

(My review from GoodReads)

Yes, yes I did. I made my students wait for this book until I had a chance to read it. Because I know after we start passing it from reader to reader I might not see it again until November. And I'm just going to say to the graphic novel haters and those who can't stand the fact that their kids/students read Dog Man books over and over again...read one. Better yet, read the whole series. These books are so good that they are WORTH reading again and again!

Dav Pilkey is a superhero. Who else is writing books for reluctant readers that quote Ernest Hemingway (page 50, panels 2 and 3...see the notes in the back of the book). Who else is creating chapter titles with allusions to great literature? (A Farewell to Arms and The Very Hangry Caterpillar were two of my favorites.) Who else is stretching readers with sentences like this tucked in the midst of sight gags, bad puns, and a superhero whose superpower is eating cupcakes: "As the soft, pink dusk of twilight blankets the city...one vigilant soul heeds the sounds of despair...and bravely responds. Masked in the deep shadows of the surrounding sun...and armed only with an unquenchable appetite...for cupcakes." And who else is making important themes so clear: "It's not enough to just BE GOOD. We gotta DO GOOD." "Love is something you DO! Sometimes you gotta DO it first...THEN you feel it!" "And (to paraphrase one of the plot lines), you can look at the world and see mud and weeds and pollution (and all the other problems) and believe that's all there is, or you can look at the world and find all the love and beauty. "This world has a lot of problems...but it could never be a horrible place...because you're in it."

I tagged this book 

2019, adhd, adventure, advice, allusions, animals, cats, dogs, family, friends, graphic-novel, humor, inspirational, knock-my-socks-off, parody, political, read, series, social-action, theme 

Yup. Check out all those tags. The "adhd" tag is kind of a joke. Haven't you noticed the name of the robot? 80-HD? Also, Dog Man undergoes behavior modification therapy in chapter 2 to help him focus. It backfires.

Read this book. Read this series. That is all.

Wendy Mass--In Person!

I had a chance to meet Wendy Mass (author of my favorite book of 2006, JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE) in person last month at Michigan Reading Association (and I am finally having time to write about it)! (This conference is a GREAT one if you ever get a chance to go. Lots and lots of great speakers--professional and children's authors.) What a treat! We met before her session and then I was able to hear her to as part of a Young Authors' Day. She spoke to a group of student authors and their families at a great event sponsored by the conference.

It is always great to meet an author who you like even better after you meet them and hear them talk. If Wendy has an official fan club, I am pretty sure that I can now qualify for president.

Wendy talked about her journey as an author and shared lots of the writing that had been published in her life. Her goal is to publish a new kind of writing each year. I was amazed that even as her success as a children's book author, she seems to be sticking with this goal--How many different ways can I be published? She has greeting cards, short stories, advertisements, articles and more. Her newest publication is a behind the scenes look at C.S. Lewis. I wasn't aware of Wendy's two books in the series TWICE UPON A TIME. I read the first few pages of each and I'm sure they'll be a hit in my classroom. They are on my "to read soon" pile.

My favorite of her publications was one that she read aloud to the group-- "The Fear of Flying," an article in a Society of Children's Book Writer's newsletter. She talked about the need for authors to fly to do author appearances. It was an article I could certainly related to since I hated to fly for so long.

In September, Wendy has a new book coming out called HEAVEN LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE MALL. This book clearly calls to me. What a title!

She is currently working on a new book.

Wendy's talk was great. If you want to learn more about her and her work, here are some sites that have interviews:

Little Willow
TeensReadToo
KidsReads

And these have reviews:
Bookshelves of Doom (A MANGO-SHAPED SPACE)
Children's Literature Book Club (JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE)
Big A little a (JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE)

And here is her MySpace page.