Hot Dog and Bob and the Surprisingly Slobbery Attack of the Dog-Wash Doggies by L. Bob Rovetch, Dave Whamond

Synopsis

The adventures of Hot Dog and Bob continue in this bone-chewing new episode! All was going well at the fifth-grade fundraiser until talking dogs from the planet Bowwowwowwow arrive to take over Earth and turn Bob and his unsuspecting classmates into their pets! Hot Dog and Bob must battle this new lazer-beam-chewie-wielding alien duo and save their friends and themselves!

Children's Literature

In this fifth "Hot Dog and Bob" adventure, fifth-grader Bob and his superhero friend (he really is a frankfurter) get mixed up with two evil doggie aliens: Stanley a bulldog and Doris a poodle. When the villains interrupt the class's fundraiser (a dog wash) to kidnap children for extraterrestrial pets, energetic Bob, his friend Clementine, and the mustard-embellished superhero must cope with earthbound bullies and a slimy doggie chew stick that not only zaps people into plastic bubbles, but also shoots deadly beams of red light. For a while it looks hopeless, as Stanley and Doris round up kids to transport and Bob begins to believe that a sleepy Hot Dog is really a robot. He is not, of course, as he proves by zooming to the rescue with his secret bun buttons that can squirt gallons of ketchup, relish, mustard, and sauerkraut. These and other frantic complications should provide enough action to satisfy any middle reader superhero fan, especially with the snappy dialog, zany characters, and Whamond's antic black-and-white ink and watercolor illustrations. As he flies away in a stream of sparkly forgetting dust, Hot Dog leaves Clementine and Bob some cool souvenirs: a "Royal Purple Potato of Bravery" and a photo of Hot Dog and his elongated parents (just to show he is not a robot). That is "The End / (for now)" as a final page is already announcing Adventure #6. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft

Biography

L. Bob Rovetch has written several other books under her "secret spy name," Lissa Rovetch. She and her family live near San Francisco. She has the deepest respect for hot dogs.

Dave Whamond always wanted to be a cartoonist. Today he has a syndicated daily comic strip called "Reality Check." He and his family live in Alberta, Canada.