The newest adventure of Binky, the Space Cat, finds Binky in the role of teacher as he prepares to train a new recruit. He has it all mapped out, until he finds out his new recruit is a dog! Not only a dog, but a dog with no skills and a complete disregard for nap time! Then, Binky begins to suspect that this dog might be an enemy spy. Told through text and delightfully comic pictures, this volume shows some of the fundamental differences between cats in dogs in a way that will leave children laughing. Note, there is some potty humor, a lot of potty humor, but it is the kind of grossness that will lead to bursts of giggles. Of course, Binky learns that maybe this dog isn't so bad, but that might be clarified in future volumes. Let's hope anyway!
The Binky series is a great graphic novel series for younger readers, I would say second to fourth grade. The text is rather simple and the text and pictures are well contained, making this an easy to read graphic novel. Children will love the relationship between Binky and the dog, Gordon. Like so many cat and dog teams before them (Garfield and Oddie, Bad Kitty and Poor Puppy, etc.) there comes to be a grudging respect between the two.
Now, I'm a dog person. Obviously. My husband is crazy allergic to cats, and I don't want a pet that is plotting to kill me on a regular basis, but I like this type of book, where the cat is the intelligent one and the dog is the lovable loser. It makes sense based on my experience with my dog. But it would be interesting to challenge young readers to turn the tables and make the Gordon train Binky in their own graphic novel. What would that story look like?
I personally don't think that Binky would have any trouble training my Lucy, because, as you can see, she loves a good nap!
Happy Reading!
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