The Bad Guys

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 10, 2018

Review

First published in Australia in 2015, this is the first US publication. The book is the first in a series of highly-appealing, fast-paced, comedic books about a group of reformed (kind of) "bad guys." Led by Mr. Wolf, who is determined to undo all of the damage of past stories involving ne'er-do-well wolves, and who has roped a few other bad guys into his quest for improvement: snake, piranha, and shark, all of whom could use some good press, Mr. Wolf is determined to rescue something in distress instead of eating it. His positivity and unflailing belief that they really CAN be good guys does lead to some excellent results. Readers will laugh out loud at the jokes and situations in which these good-ish bad guys find themselves. The illustrations are very good and support the story in an almost graphic-novel-like way. Dormant readers will gravitate toward these and I suspect that Blabley won't be able to write more episodes fast enough to keep up with reader interest. I hope that he tries though. An easy add to any elementary-aged library collection with the recommendation that they be placed with the graphic novels for maximum exposure to an audience who will eat them up.

Overall Book Score: very good