Dog Man Unleashed

By Dav Pilkey

Hi! Do you know anyone who is a police officer? Well, Dog Man is. Let me tell you how it all got started.

Before Dog Man was invented, there was a dog and a police officer. The police officer had really good fighting skills, but the dog was really smart. But one day, Petey, an evil cat and Dog Man’s enemy, set off a bomb that destroyed the cop’s head and the dog’s body. So, a nurse lady came up with a great idea while they were in the hospital. She decided to sew Dog Man’s head onto the cop’s body.

And so, Dog Man was created. But Dog Man had a few bad habits. He slobbered all over everybody, he was obsessed with balls, and for some reason, he liked to roll around in dead fish.

It all started one morning on the chief’s birthday. Dog Man was sent out to buy a fish for the chief. Now, the pet store had a really bad history with Dog Man. He was always licking all of their bones, trying out all of their dog vests, eating all of their kibble, and playing with all of their balls. Then, Dog Man picked out a fish. But when the pet store clerk told him how much it was, Dog Man didn’t have any money. So, the store clerk’s boss told him to give Dog Man an evil fish.

Right after they gave him the fish, a girl walked in. She wanted a puppy that was in the window. She paid for it, then told everyone goodbye. When she saw Dog Man, she told him that she was one of his biggest fans. She gave him her card and then told him goodbye.

When Dog Man got back to the station, they had a surprise birthday. Two other cops had gotten the chief brain dots because he was always forgetting things. They had made him a big cake and Dog Man gave him the fish. The chief loved his pet fish. He named him Flippy. He set Flippy on a stool beside a chest of drawers. He put the brain dots on top of the drawer – he took one but he forgot to close the lid. All of the sudden, his alarm bell rang on his phone for lunch. When he left, he slammed the door too hard and the brain dots fell into Flippy’s bowl. Now, you weren’t supposed to take more than one brain dot at a time. And what happened next? Well, in this book they say Flippy’s brain grew eleven sizes that day!

When the chief got back from lunch, he saw that a mysterious stranger had robbed the pet store! He put Dog Man on the case. When Dog Man got there, the lady who gave him her card was there. Her name was Sarah. She told Dog Man that, when she was coming back to get pet food for her dog, a mysterious stranger had tied her and the store workers up and broken in to the pet store. Sarah’s dog had chewed off one of her ropes, so she was able to get a picture of the mysterious stranger.

Where will the mysterious stranger strike next? Will Dog Man be able to save the day or will this mysterious stranger keep causing raucous and mayhem all across the neighborhood? As I always say, read the book to find out!

I recommend this book to readers who like comic books full of action, comedy and excitement.

A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:

“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor):
There were no real scary parts in this book, just some minor funny/scary parts.

“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor):
Zero. None. Nada.