Tag Paige Braddock

The Dog Squad: The Newshound / Peanut, Butter & Crackers: River Rescue

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The Dog Squad: The Newshound
Clara Vulliamy
Harper Collins Children’s Books

Eva has always wanted to be a journalist, so when she finds a stray dog almost outside her home, she could have found her first real case. Can she, along with her best friends, Ash and Simone, at the Newshound local newspaper, find the real owner of Wafer, as she names the whippet on account of his thinness. This is necessary because Eva’s mum insists that the dog can only stay with them in their rented flat for one night, partly because their landlord has a strictly no pets policy.

However the search the friends undertake leads to a series of dead ends during which Eva becomes more and more convinced she doesn’t really want to solve the mystery of Wafer’s owner anyway.

This first of Clara’s new series for younger KS2 readers introduces some charming characters: Eva, the star reporter, is compassionate, determined and sticks to her principles. Then there’s Simone who is artistic, and ‘brainy’ Ash who happens to be non-binary.

Can Eva overcome the obstacles she faces, including the landlord and his no pets rule,

and perhaps even get to keep Wafer?

The story includes several issues which are important for children to understand: the responsibilities involved in having a pet being the main one, but also touched on is puppy farming and the treatment of unwanted pets, as well as the aforementioned gender alignment. With plentiful black and white illustrations by the author to captivate and motivate less confident solo readers, this will warm the hearts of youngsters, whether or not they are dog lovers like Eva. Who knows it might even encourage some children to become animal rights activists .

Peanut, Butter & Crackers: River Rescue
Paige Braddock
Nosy Crow

The second of the funny graphic novel series for pooch and cat lovers sees the friends off in their human’s camper van to spend some time in the great outdoors.

When the decidedly indoor moggy, Butter, discovers that said human has not brought a litter tray, he decides to go and search the forest for one. Otherwise, how will he go to the loo. Having clawed an exit hole through the mesh, off he sets accompanied by Peanut the puppy, on a litter tray exploration. However they get lost and then things rapidly deteriorate when Butter hears the sound of running water and misunderstands what this means. What it does mean is that the two friends suddenly find themselves in a river, clinging to a lump of log for dear life.

Meanwhile Crackers has discovered the two are missing and is searching for them. Can he locate and rescue them? Perhaps, with some assistance from a precision-obsessed beaver.

Full of heart, very amusing and just right for new solo readers, particularly those who are keen on visual storytelling. Bonus pages give guidance on how to draw the three characters, a peep behind the scenes and a sneak peep at the next book in the series.

Peanut, Butter & Crackers: Puppy Problems

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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.)