If you hadn’t heard of The Bad Guys before the recent hit film from DreamWorks Animation, odds are you weren’t recently an elementary school student, a parent of one, or a teacher. I was part of that camp that had no clue it existed until the film started to break the box office. With the 15th volume of the graphic novel aimed at ages 7 through 10 just released by Scholastic Inc., I cracked open my first book in the hit series by Aaron Blabey, this one titled The Bad Guys in Open Wide and Say ARRRGH!
(Scholastic)
Being the 15th installment in an ongoing series, The Bad Guys in Open Wide and Say ARRRGH! very much requires prior knowledge of the series to dive in. There isn’t a recap or even brief character descriptions for the relatively large cast of characters. The Bad Guys are split up on separate adventures in this story and it feels like they’re heading back together as part of a larger story. That said, this particular book doesn’t really feel like its own complete story, something parents should consider. If this is to be your child’s first book from The Bad Guys, you may instead want to go back to the first in the series.
One of the three interconnected storylines finds Mr. Wolf arriving just in time to save Agent Fox from a demented dentist named Doctor Drillaagh, a minion of Dread Overlord Splaarghon. While trying to escape, they meet an honest bat named Abe, one of “The Others,” a group searching for “The One.”
Agent Hogwild, Agent Kitty Kat, and Mr. Shark have arrived to rescue Pepe from Mr. Snake, who is also now working for Dread Overlord Splaarghon. With the ability to hypnotize people to do his bidding through rock music, Splaarghon might just be about to take over the rest of the group!
Milt, Mr. Tarantula,Tiffany Fluffit, and Buck Thunders are facing off against Underlord Shaard at the beginning of their story, which leads them to find more of “The Others.” And that’s all going to lead directly into book 16, titled The Bad Guys in The Others?, on sale this November.
While The Bad Guys may not be a series that you can just pick up in the middle, it’s easy to see why it’s been such a big hit as both a kid-friendly graphic novel and as a feature film. Everyone loves a villain, especially when they go good, and watching these animal masterminds take down new foes is a lot of fun. This story is peppered with silly fun for kids, including fart jokes and a deranged dentist who makes root canals look painless.
If you or your children are interested in getting into The Bad Guys, the first book is the best place to start. Even if they’ve seen the film version, there are enough changes that will throw them off. Since this book doesn’t provide any form of a recap or even character descriptions, it doesn’t serve as an entry point but is rather yet another fun chapter in an ongoing story.
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