Peanut, Butter & Crackers: Puppy Problems
Paige Braddock
Nosy Crow

Butter (a cat) and Crackers (a dog) are rescue animals living a life of harmony – more or less – until their human brings home a large box containing not snacks aplenty as they’d hoped, but Peanut, a puppy. Said puppy pees in such inappropriate places as beside Crackers’ water bowl – not the thing to do to a sensitive, considerate home loving dog – especially when the pup then proceeds to drink from the bowl and gobble up Crackers’ favourite crunchy food. If that’s not bad enough, young Peanut keeps both Crackers and Butter up at night and then has the audacity to demolish half of Crackers’ breakfast before the dog has surfaced after a decidedly delayed sleep. The little mischief then upends the rubbish bin leaving the contents strewn across the floor.

My favourite part was Butter introducing the toilet as a jacuzzi and demonstrating how it works; we end up with loo paper strewn across the bathroom floor and wrapped around instigator of the incident. 

This is followed by chewed trainers, a chomped cushion and dare I say, shredded books.

Back comes the human: now surely such has been the puppy’s behaviour it will mean farewell to him but all that happens is a finger wagging, not even a raised voice. Something must be done and done it is, accidentally on purpose by Butter, at night and it results in the Peanut being alone and lost in the dark. 

This could be the time when, for the two long-time residents, compassion kicks in. Can the three find a way to co-exist so all ends happily in this first book in a series of highly humorous graphic novels?

Paige Braddock’s action-packed illustrations together with the affable banter between Butter and Crackers make for an ideal comic book style starter that younger readers will love, be they or be they not, pet lovers. (An author’s note explains that Peanut, Butter, and Crackers are based on her real life pets; she also provides introductory character information and a pictorial map of the setting.)