Sophie is a chocolate Labrador retriever who has a fantastic life with her humans... until baby Doug appears. He's smelly and takes a lot of attention away from her, which she does NOT appreciate. Still, Sophie ends up spending a lot of time with the tot, who is often in sitting up in a baby walker, right at Sophie's eye level. This leades to Calvin and Hobbes style fantasy adventures. Sophie styles herself as Indiana Bones, and has an adventure with the Temple of the Lost Cookie. Doug gets bonus points for being willing to share. There's a monster until the bed as the two "siblings" are snuggled in the crib, but of course the monster is misunderstood. He doesn't want to eat them; he's just there for the peanut butter. There is an adventure in the monster's world as well. Two rescue cats, Equinox and Chewy, are added to the family, and they are fashioned as evil felines who secretly (or not so secretly) want to take over the world. They have a hidden lair, a time travel machine, and are a big concern to Sophie. This doesn't stop Sophie from having flights of fantasy where she reimagines Star Wars (Commander Doug vs. the Labradorian), Yellowstone (Labstone, where they fight off the Binky Bandit Gang), and Batman (as the Canine Crusader and Cat Boy). Sophie also teaches Doug to get his own way by being adorable, but Doug goes supernova cute with his efforts, and the two are sucked into a cutesy cartoon world where Doug has to be convinced there is no percentage in being Lord Dimple Cheeks.
October 15, 2024 by Marble Press
Copy provided by the publisher
Sophie and Doug are back after their adventures in Sophie: Jurassic Bark, and are ready for more adventures loosely based on some popular stories. Doug is crawling now, and is a dangerous hugger! The two reprise their roles as Batman characters in The Bark Night, and are determined to thwart the efforts of cats Equinox and Chewy to dominate the world. For their part, the cats are consulting Cat Thulhu about how they should best conquer their home, and it's suggested that they must first endear themselves to be truly effective. Just when Sophie is used to the baby as well as the cats, a new challenge is introduced: the family takes in three foster puppies! James and Jenny are soon adopted, and Sophie is relieved to get them out of her space, but James remains. He's sad that his siblings are gone, and Sophie not only consoles him, but tries to instruct the interloper on how to best snare a human. Even the cats are asked for help, but they of course have other evil plans to work on, like highjacking the smart speaker and trying to harness its technology. When Jack is also adopted, Sophie is glad because she got what she asked for, but soon realizes that she is actually sad, which is a hard situation to justify in her mind. Soon, though, there is another foster dog, Annie, who is a very large dog who is tired of everyone making assumptions about her personality just because of her size. This leads into a Frankenstein fantasy with Annie in the title role. There is also a plot by the squirrels to retrieve a flash drive from the cats, kidnapping by aliens, and an Alice in Wonderland style adventure.
These books are compilations of Anderson's web comic, Dog Eat Doug, and based loosely on his own life with a small child and multiple pets. Like Schade and Buller's Scarlett: Star on the Run, McDonnell's Mutts books, or Dunn's Breaking Cat News, Sophie introduces us to intrepid animal characters (as well as an infant and then toddler who communicates solely through saying "Bak!") who have the kind of adventures we all imagine our pets have when our backs are turned. I, for one, am glad to see that my theory that cats are evil and are planning world domination was upheld by Equinox and Chewy's antics!
While I haven't taken a deep dive into the web comic on which this is based, I imagine that the episodes in the compilations are mostly based on the daily comics, but given chapter headings that tie together a series of strips on particular topics. This works well, and fans of Lincoln Peirce's Big Nate (who says this strip is "the perfect mis of heart, humor, and hilarity) will be glad to pick these up.
I'm never a huge fan of drawings where the characters don't have eyeballs, so I was a bit put off by the style of eyes, but there's always something about cartoon style drawings that distract me; at least the noses were perfectly fine, and the humans are rendered ala Peanuts; only seen off panel or from the waist down.
Middle school students today have a much different relationship with comics than I did. They don't read newspapers, so don't get a daily dose of dozens of favorite characters. They are more likely to pick up a collection of strips and immerse themselves in the world. As someone who read Funky Winkerbean every day for nearly fifty years, it makes me sad, but that's the way the world works. My students will pick up Sophie and be enthralled by her fantastical adventures with Doug.
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