Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug Book

An unexpected treasure found in a wordless picture book.

Ages 3-8

I found this book delightful in its simplicity. The bum-sniffing, bug obsessed Bow-Wow leads readers on an adventure through the neighborhood where he encounters all sorts of zany characters. A young child would delight in watching this bug versus dog story unfold.

The comic strip style illustrations are simple, colorful and fun, yet are filled with details to discover that make the story new each time through. The off the wall story is both intriguing and silly. Clever and original, this story is sure to be a hit for all. Non readers will enjoy creating their own words to this delightful tale.



Publishers Weekly

This wordless sequence of comic panels, the first in a planned Bow-Wow Books series, is an eminently charming and surreal twist on what might otherwise be just another of the dog days of summer. Garbage Pail Kids creator Newgarden and Cash (What Makes the Seasons?) create a kind of silent feature, composing each orderly panel with a beefy black line and saturated digital colors. Bow-Wow himself, a golden-yellow terrier, has oval-dot eyes and an expressive brow that convey a broad range of emotions as he goes about his day. The action centers on his pursuit of a pesky black bug, which hops to the edge of his dog dish in the morning. With his nose to the ground and brow furrowed in concentration, Bow-Wow tracks the bug down the sidewalk where, in swift succession, gags pile up and absurdities bloom. Bow-Wow encounters a Doppelganger and the duo (as well as their respective insects) engages in an increasingly zany series of mirrored movements. Bow-Wow then meets an enormous lookalike who has been pursuing an equally oversize insect; when Bow-Wow flees this pair of behemoths, he rounds a corner to find a wild convoy of dogs sniffing after bugs. (Turning yet another corner, he is stunned to discover an array of giant insects chasing after minuscule dogs.) Newgarden and Cash use a varied layout of panels to great effect (three spreads are dedicated to close-ups of Bow-Wow's blinking disbelief as the enormous creepy-crawlies charge toward him), making this outing, which in less skilled hands might have read like a Sunday comic strip, feel enormously fresh and modern. Ages 3-7. (June)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

A good description and this does feel fresh and modern. An excellent review.

Kirkus Reviews

A little black speck of a bug leads a feisty yellow terrier on an increasingly surreal trip around his neighborhood in a brilliantly whimsical wordless romp. When the bug descends on Bow-Wow's dog dish, a scowl descends on his features and off he sets to teach it a lesson. Comic-strip panels advance the action with perfect pacing, the Photoshopped sameness of Bow-Wow's suburban neighborhood providing a bland, impossibly regular background to ever more zany situations, which include meeting mirror images of himself and the bug, encountering giant-sized versions of both himself and the bug and armies of bug-pursuing dogs and dog-pursuing bugs. Long shots and close-ups hilariously assist in the progress of the narrative, cinematic convention adapting perfectly to the medium. The aforementioned blandly regular background combines with bold, clean lines and a sunnily uncomplicated palette to keep what might in other hands be a rather terrifying journey into 1950s horror/sci fi from overwhelming young readers. Call it a kinder, gentler Twilight Zone in which the doughty protagonist is allowed to return home to bowl and bed at the end of the day. Thoroughly inspired. (Picture book. 4-10)

A nice description of the illustrations, but I would have liked a bit more about the plot, however, they are right on with thoroughly inspired.