Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder

Dav Pilkey's Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder is a laugh-out-loud comic for 7 year olds where a tomato juice bath goes very wrong and turns Dog Man bright red.

What happens

It's the twelfth Dog Man book, and it opens on a wedding. Chief is marrying Nurse Lady and Dog Man is best man. His one job is to hold the ring and NOT eat it (he only licks it a few times).

Then Chief tosses his hat as he leaves on honeymoon. Whoever catches it is Chief while he's gone. It lands with Maude, the cop who can't stand Dog Man.

After a skunk, a falling-down City Hall and a very cross judge, Dog Man gets the blame and a sentence of infinity in jail (for "moral turpitude", which nobody in the courtroom understands). The tomato juice meant to get the skunk smell out just dyes him "as red as a thousand sunsets".

So when Dr. Scum offers a robot Dog Man to go to jail instead, it sounds perfect. But there's a catch, and it's Petey who has to pay it. Petey has tried SO hard to be a good guy, and now he's scared he'll end up a crook again.

Meanwhile Dr. Scum's robot copies of real people are popping up all over town and doing everyone's jobs. Who wouldn't want more free time? Shame the humans only use it for doom scrolling and selfies.

It's comics all the way through, so lots of the jokes are in the pictures. There are giant sound effects, Flip-E-Rama pages where you swipe back and forth to make a picture move, and some brilliantly silly insults ("twinkle-toothed salad spinners"!). Most children will race through it in one sitting.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Petey has two dreams about being a kitten, and they're the real heart of the book. In them he and his mum lose their home and move into a shelter, and his dad isn't coming with them. A little cat they meet there says his parents are in heaven. It's gentle and brief, but it might land hard for a child going through a family split or a house move. For others it could be a lovely way into a chat about choosing to be kind when things feel unfair. The rest is cartoon chaos (robots grabbing people, lots of explosions) and plenty of skunk and fart jokes.

What to read next

If your reader is new to the series, the very first Dog Man book is where it all started. It shows how a police officer and his dog ended up as one hero, back when Petey was simply the city's evil cat.