Why do we love to hate Dog Man? (And what to do about it)

A Dog Man treatise

The very first thing I want to say is that I don’t hate Dog Man. At all. Not even remotely.

But a lot of you do.

Or maybe “hate” is a strong word. A lot of you dislike Dog Man. Disdain Dog Man. Just really prefer that your Dog Man-crazy reader would read, like, anything other than Dog Man.

I know this because you tell me. Again and again.

My inbox is full of archived emails with lamentations like:

“I don’t like Dog Man’s name-calling and ‘adults are the enemy’ attitude.”

“Why is there so much poop in Dog Man?”

“I had to put the boundary on Dog Man.”

“Dog Man has made my kid a jerk!”

In short: HELP! WHAT CAN I DO?

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Dog Man, via Dav Pilkey’s website

(What — or who — is Dog Man?)

For those of you who may very well have no idea what — or who — I’m talking about:

Dog Man is the graphic novel brainchild of Dav Pilkey, a bonkers successful author of books for children ages 6-9. A spinoff of Pilkey’s hit series Captain Underpants (the first book alone sold 80 million copies), Dog Man swooped onto the literary scene — and rocked the world of elementary schoolers everywhere — in 2021. Since then, Pilkey has released 13 more titles, and the 14th will be published by Scholastic this fall.

A massive part of the charm of this series is Dog Man himself — he really is half-dog, half-man, the Frankensteinian product of an accident in which a dog and police officer both suffered and could only be saved in… parts.

This insane — and entertaining — premise gives you a good idea of the vibe of these books. They’re nuts, they’re very funny, and they’re exactly the type of outrageous stories that the age group to which they’re targeted are capable of imagining themselves.

The series contains elements that parents and caregivers don’t love: even those who can get over their erroneous belief that graphic novels don’t “count” (that’s another rant for another day) balk at the rampant potty humor, rude attitude and behavior, and misspelled words found in Pilkey’s narratives.

The books also possess an unexpected level of character development, bright and riotously entertaining digital illustrations, and laugh-out-loud scenes of such ludicrousness, my husband will ask, sitting next to me while I’m snorting with mirth, what on earth I’m reading. (Yes, I have read them. Of course I have read them.)

Additionally, Pilkey has been extremely open about his struggles with both ADHD and dyslexia, including a note on the “About the author/illustrator” page at the back of each Dog Man book that talks about how, as a kid, he was so disruptive in class he spent most of his time sitting in the hallway, drawing and making up stories. He writes:

“In the second grade, Dav’s teacher ripped up his comics and told him he couldn’t spend the rest of his life making silly books. Fortunately, Dav was not a very good listener.”

(I could not possibly love this more.)

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Help for hating Dog Man (which will probably make you hate me instead)

The first Dog Man book, titled, Dog Man by Dav Pilkey

There is no help for hating Dog Man — that’s to say, there’s probably nothing I’m going to tell you here that’s going to convince you not to hate Dog Man if you do. But I can also say some things that might assuage your worries. I have given this deep thought (not being sarcastic — I really have spent hours thinking about Dog Man).

Here they are:

1. You’re not alone in this dilemma

I’ve heard from lots of parents and caregivers that they’re in a complicated relationship with Dog Man, to say the least. There are an alarming number of Reddit posts on this topic. This is not a struggle that’s personal to you or your family. Your child is not the only new jerk born of Dog Man.

You are not alone.

2. Dog Man leads to more reading

It does. (He does? 🤔)

After people tell me how much they hate Dog Man, the second thing they say is how they can’t get their child to stop reading these books. How this is the thing that helped their emerging reader improve their comprehension skills. How this series finally, finally hooked their reluctant kid.

Ask any elementary teacher or children’s librarian at school or the public library and I’m confident they’ll back me up on this. Dog Man is some kind of magic reading spell.

I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it a million more: choice is the right of every reader, and that’s a hill I’ll die on. You don’t have to love it or even like it — but if your child likes Dog Man, then let that child read Dog Man.

3. There are actually some valuable lessons and values in Dog Man

Dog Man is as loyal as, well, a dog. He messes up, but he works to fix his mistakes and repair his relationships. He tries and tries again, always with a lot of heart. He’s imperfect, but so is everyone, so it’s okay.

I’m not even capturing them all, but the messages in these books are meaningful:

• Doing good matters. Trying to do good matters even if you fail.

• Even though the world is a hard place sometimes, we have one another.

• You’re creative! Don’t worry about getting it “right,” just make some stuff.

• Friends are important.

• Forgiveness is important.

• Laugh as much and often as you can.

4. Dog Man’s wild plots and gross humor give kids permission to be kids

Kids experience a lot of stress and pressure, most of which we don’t even know about. Their childhoods are different from ours; their world is different than the one in which we grew up. There are very few places left where it’s okay to just be a kid.

And part of being a kid is enjoying the results of an absolutely gonzo imagination — including toilets that talk and evil cats with ray guns and hot dogs that come to life and try to start a revolution, among many other zany things that occur in this series — and yes, laughing at poop jokes. You may not remember how funny you found toilet humor when you were in, say, 2nd grade, but that’s one thing that hasn’t changed.

The strong objection to this specific aspect of Pilkey’s work makes me wonder when we all got so uptight that we can’t accept a good poop joke. Like, really? You know who else made some hilarious poop, fart, and penis jokes? SHAKESPEARE.

I know this is the part where some of you will say, “Well, Sarah, that’s great for you, but my kid takes this humor and applies it to life — being rude, being annoying, being combative, generally just taking Dog Man’s influence too far.”

I get it. I do. There was one night recently when my husband said, through gritted teeth, that if our 8-year-old sang a song from Dog Man — set to the tune of a particularly annoying Christmas carol — one more time, she’d have to chill out in her room for awhile. There was another week where she took to saying, “Hmmm, NO” in a particularly sarcastic and impertinent way, which I know she learned from Dog Man because she told me, “I learned that from Dog Man.” 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’m not saying Dog Man is perfectly fine in every way. I am saying…

5. The type of parent or caregiver you are will forever be more impactful than whatever your child is reading

Books matter, and they can be powerful, but they do not matter more, and they are not more powerful than you.

There have absolutely been times when I’ve been reading aloud to my children something that I don’t like or agree with, and I’ve stopped right then and said, “Listen, I don’t like or agree with this.” That’s an option. You can say, “I don’t like the potty talk here.” Or, “These are characters in a book. We don’t talk that way to each other in our family.” Or, “I love how much you’re enjoying Dog Man, but I want you to know that some of the behavior that’s shown here is not okay.”

Trust that your example as a human being — what you do, who and how you are — has and will continue to have the biggest impact on your child.

6. Dog Man will work itself out of your kid’s system

Eventually, your child will move on from Dog Man. It’s a phase that will pass just like any other. I’m not encouraging you to hasten its departure, but if you’re hell-bent on making this happen sooner rather than later, then work to get lots of different books in their hands, ones that do convey the type of behavior you’d like to see or values you’d like to impart. Trust that taste breeds taste, and have faith.

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Books for fans of Dogman

Other than other Pilkey series — Cat Kid Comic Club, Captain Underpants, Super Diaper Baby, etc. — there are no other read-alikes that really and truly emulate Dog Man. But there are series that have similar vibes, and that’s what I’m offering here.

The only way to know if your kiddo will enjoy them is to try them out.

• Barb the Berzerker series by Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson

• The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza series by Mac Barnett

• CatStronauts series by Drew Brockington (the first book, CatStronauts: Mission Moon, shown above)

• Max Meow, Cat Crusader series by John Gallagher

• Investigators series by John Patrick Green (shown above)

• Batpig series by Rob Harrell (the first book, When Pigs Fly, shown above)

• Real Pigeons series by Andrew McDonald

• Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

• Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce

• Max and the Midknights series by Lincoln Peirce

• Ham Helsing series by Rich Moyer

• Binky the Space Cat series by Ashley Spires

• Hilo series by Judd Winick

If you need more suggestions, don’t miss 15 Hilarious Books for Kids Who Like Dog Man from the incomparable Afoma Umesi of Reading Middle Grade.

And if you’d like further thoughts on Dog Man — from a mother and former educator whose 4-year-old is obsessed — read this excellent, nuanced post from Clarkie Doster of the newsletter, Book Party.

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A few weeks ago, in my role as the chair of the board of a statewide organization that serves 600 libraries and cultural organizations in Wisconsin and beyond, I had to make some brief remarks in front of hundreds of librarians. This is what I wore.

Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah

P.S. We saw the Dog Man movie. My 8-year-old said, “I like the books a lot better.” I fell asleep.