The dog and pony show: Dog gets a pet by Jeff Mack

 Pony, a perky brown horse with three yellow spots on their rump, starts off the story by giving Dog, a yellow mutt with three brown spots on his rump, a green gift box. After much discussion, Dog opens the box and discovers a pet... rock. At first, Dog is disappointed, but then imagines the rock is the T. Rex he really wanted - named Lulu! Things go downhill quickly, when Dog declares Lulu likes to eat ponies, and they have an exciting time before the two friends figure out how to work together with their new friend Lulu (and Dog's wild imagination). The relationship between the two "friends" is odd - by the end it seems that they are less friends than a parent-child duo, with Pony putting Dog to bed and setting boundaries for him.

Mack's static cartoons are reminiscent of the illustrations of the early Bright and Early books and their creators, including P. D. Eastman and Dr. Seuss. The art does include a lot more detail, especially in the backgrounds, and is organized into panels. The introduction shows readers how to read a graphic novel, but the text in the introduction is more complicated than a lot of the text included in the book itself.

I am really glad my district is slowly (kicking and screaming) moving away from reading levels and I have hopes that in a few years I may no longer need to put levels on things, especially from publishers who use their own leveling system and not one of the standard ones. However, we're still definitely in a leveled world and I would put this at an intermediate level. Not complex enough to go into my transitional chapters, but not simple enough to give a red dot (GRL D-G).

Verdict: For readers looking for more funny stories and eager to read comics like the big kids, this is a fun new series although they will probably need some help in balancing the more complicated vocabulary and graphic novel style.

ISBN: 9781665939126; Published May 2024 by Simon Spotlight: Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library