While Li'l Petey's paraphrasing of Kent M. Keith's poem Anyway to help Petey realize he still needs to be a good person, as well as the inclusion of a short story about why reading to children will endear Dog Man to adults, any Pilkey fan knows that the real draw of a Dog Man book is the full color comic book style layouts, the flip-o-ramas, and the nonstop, goofy adventure. This installment certainly has plenty of that, as well as chase scenes with unlikely robocreatures bent on world domination and destruction.

Petey's nemeses (an alligator, pig, and gorilla) are a fun new addition, and the reworking of Golding's classic is age appropriate. Not sure if it will encourage the target demographic to pick up the book, even if Harold states he finally finished it. The next book in the series is Brawl of the Wild, (due out December 24th 2018), so Pilkey does seem to have an eye towards bringing more attention to classic literature via his half dog, half policeman protagonist.

Elementary school age readers will be thrilled to read this new installment from Pilkey, and even middle school students remain fans of his mix of crime fighting, hilarious pictures, and Dog Man being distracted by any form of squirrel.