It's Monday! What are you reading?

 I realized that I hadn't read the most popular book in our library, so I remedied that this weekend.

Yep, that's right--I finally read Dog Man by Dav Pilkey!

I'm not going to lie--I was bored at first, and thought that I was going to have to have meetings with my students to discuss why they thought this series is so good.  But then I read the book through to the end, and I think I know why--Pilkey taps into all the potty humor that elementary kids find so funny.  The plot lines are ridiculous, but what did you expect from a series that has a main character that is half-dog, half-cop?  There's a cat nemesis, of course, but it doesn't stop there--Pilkey manages to include a grumpy police chief, evil mayor, hot dogs and a giant taco that come to life, and a not-at-all-subtle nod to the importance of reading packed into this first installment.  There's also the story-within-a-story of two friends making this comic and getting in trouble at school because of it, with a withering statement that "the classroom is no place for creativity"--social commentary, much?

I can also see why these books fly off the shelves for practical reasons.  The print is larger than most of our graphic novels; the art is relatable (there are lessons at the end to show you how to draw the characters); and the vocabulary is fairly decodable.  For readers who struggle with longer stories, finishing a short episode can provide a sense of achievement. 

My suggestion to teachers and parents who are quick to dismiss this series as "mind candy" is to treat these books as you would any other in your students'/ children's book bins.  Talk about the characters, settings, plots.  Skim the stories to look for harder vocabulary words and practice that dialogue with the students.  Ask them to storyboard their own Dog Man stories, incorporating characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.  Then pull a Captain Underpants book from your school library, and point out the same elements and sense of humor.  

Before you know it, they may be reading Nick Bruel's Bad Kitty series,  Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, James Patterson's Dog Diaries...but it has to start somewhere.  Why not a dog-man who solves crimes but can't help peeing in the police chief's office?