Review by Woodrow Phoenix

Dav Pilkey makes sure every book in the Dog Man series is accessible to new readers who might never have read one before, so every book begins with an intro from the authors George and Harold giving a summary of what has gone before. After nine volumes, though, that summary has become quite extensive.

Dog Man is a combination of police dog and police man. He keeps the city safe from evildoers, especially Petey the world’s most evil cat. Recently Petey was transformed by the love of his clone Li’l Petey and now he’s a good guy… more or less. Petey’s dad who’d abandoned him as a child (a big reason why Petey was evil) returned, stole all his stuff and got sent to Cat Jail. Dog Man, Li’l Petey and their robot friend 80-HD are also superheroes The Bark Knight, Cat Kid and Lightning Dude. They team up when necessary to fight crime as the Supa Buddies alongside their friends Chief, Sarah the TV reporter, her poodle Zuzu. Fetch-22 added Flippy the bionic fish, Molly the psychokinetic tadpole and there’s the always hungry Commander Cupcake – who is secretly Big Jim, another criminal cat who shares a cell in Cat Jail with Petey’s dad. Phew!

This time around Dog Man, following his ordinary canine impulses, gets himself into big trouble when he digs up the mayor’s rose garden, and slobbers on the mayor’s glasses, making him so angry that the mayor fires him from his job. Oh no! But although the mayor hates dogs, he loves cats. Could it be that a disguised Dog Man could sneak back onto the police force as Cat Man? Meanwhile, Petey’s terrible terrible dad has found a way to escape Cat Jail and his plans to revenge himself on everyone and everything involve the use of Living Spray and also a brain-altering helmet. It’s a very powerful plan – can the assorted might of the Supa Buddies stop him from carrying it out?

Grime and Punishment is as cleverly plotted, ridiculous and unpredictable as the other books in this series. There is a lot more emotional development, along with a certain amount of pathos and an ingenious use of plasticine modelling clay as HD-80 tries to communicate with his friends. Kids will be on the edge of their seats, trying to figure out just how Dog Man is going to save the day when he’s not allowed to be a cop anymore. Next in the series is Mothering Heights.