The Bark in Space: Book 5
(Libby/OverDrive eComic)

A canine race from another planet is looking for Earth's best detective, and talking-dog Bradley fits the bill. Megan and Raf get in on the action, too, as the trio rescues the extraterrestrial canines' princess from the clutches of evil nemesis, Dr. Vorschak. Like the other graphic novels in the series, this kooky book is a light read, despite hard-to-follow visual details. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

There are hundreds of stories about talking dogs, but if this graphic novel is any indication, every book would be better with a dog in it. The math is simple: A Google search for "dog" brings up 1,430,000,000 results. So Raf's newest invention ought to be an instant success. It's a dog-to-human translator. The only problem is, dogs don't have much to say. Even Raf's (mad-scientistengineered) canine friend Bradley, who happens to speak English, says: "much as I love my Earth doggie buddies, I gotta admit that, unlike methey're kinda dim bulbs." The storyline is busy, even for a Chicagoland Detective Agency comic. There's a missing princess, a dog show, a mad scientist and a saucer full of dogs from the planet Fnarf III. The alien dogs get the best lines, by way of Raf's iDog2 translator, including: "Human person, can you throw the flying saucer of playing fetch?" The art looks a bit more rushed than in previous volumes, but this is still one of the most inventive stories in a consistently innovative series. And even human beings will sympathize when the Fnarfian Princess Zu-La says, "Earth people are nice enough, but not very smartnone of them understands me." "Relax and enjoy," counsels Bradley. "It's like a carnival ride." (Graphic mystery. 8-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.