- Graphic Novels
- Ages 6–10
- Comedy
Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties
Book 3 of 14 in Dog ManView the full series
Petey clones himself to create the perfect evil henchman, but the clone turns out to be irresistibly kind. The book that transforms the series: from here, Dog Man becomes as much about Petey's accidental fatherhood as about crime-fighting, and the emotional depth of the whole franchise opens up.
- Best for6–10
- FormatGraphic
- Length224 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr45 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Comedic
- Conversational
- Onomatopoeic
Tone
- Funny
- Silly
- Exciting
- Absurdist
- Heartwarming
- Warm
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Book three introduces the plot device that changes the Dog Man series permanently: Petey uses a cloning machine expecting to create a perfectly evil assistant. Li'l Petey is instead sweet, gentle, and enthusiastically good, a miniature version of the villain who turns out to be the purest character in the book. The joke is perfect, and the emotional resonance of Petey being forced into reluctant fatherhood opens the whole series to bigger feelings. A Tale of Two Kitties is a genuine pivot point: the books that follow are about redemption, family, and belonging as much as slapstick crime-fighting. Readers who knew Dog Man only as an action-comedy will discover here how much more the series can do. 80-HD is also developed further, deepening the ensemble. Essential in sequence, new readers should start with book one.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 6–10
- Read aloud · 5–8
- Independent · 6–12
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
3 / 5 · Mostly fine
Graphic intensity
2 / 5 · Mild
Best for
- Reluctant readers
- Laugh out loud
- Series pivot
- Gift book
Avoid if
No common reasons to avoid this one — a rare clean sweep on the sensitivity flags.
Particularly good for children who are…
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
- Neurodiversity or learning differences
- Making friends
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A reluctant-reader powerhouse: fast, funny and endlessly re-read — the kind of book that turns a non-reader into a reader. A classroom-library staple, not a teaching text.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific kick is meeting Li'l Petey — a clone so sweet it ruins his cynical creator's whole evil plan. A seven-year-old reader feels they're being trusted with something tender: the villain trying not to like a tiny version of himself, and failing. The volume the whole rest of the series turns on.
- Animal companions
- Being special or chosen
- Breaking the rules safely
- Trickery and cleverness
Why parents love it
The Dog Man that pivots the whole series — Petey the villain gets a sweet, accidental clone-son and the franchise quietly becomes a story about fatherhood as much as crime-fighting. Buy this one if a child has the first two, because everything after assumes it. The volume that earned Dog Man its real reputation.
- Shared humour
- Conversation starter
- Quick to read
In the series
Dog Man.
14 books · open the series →
About the author & illustrator
Dav Pilkey.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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