On the Tail of a Shaggy Dog Tale: Chick 'n' Pug Meet the Dude by Jennifer Sattler

CHICK 'N' PUG WERE AN UNSTOPPABLE TEAM. THEY SPENT MOST OF THEIR TIME LOOKING FOR EXCITING ADVENTURES AND SAVING ORDINARY CITIZENS.

At least, that's the way Chick tells it. Chick has a thing for hyperbole, and to her this somnolent  pooch is Wonder Pug, definitely a super-hero ready to spring into action to the right wrongs of the world. But Pug is no action figure. In fact, his main action appears to be finding times and places for naps, with great success.

But when a ginormous shaggy white dog makes off with their favorite toy, Squeaky Hamburger, Chick thinks it's time for some caped crusading.

"JUST LOOK AT THOSE CLAWS! AND THOSE SHARP FANGS! THE EVIL LOOK IN HIS EYES!" SAID CHICK.

"WHO IS THIS MONSTER?"

Underwhelmed, Pug opens one droopy eyelid just as the beast makes off with the toy, page right.

"THE DUDE," HE SAYS DROWSILY.

"DON'T WORRY, WONDER PUG!" CHICK BOASTS. "I WILL NOT LET THE VILLAIN ESCAPE."

Pug, on the other hand, dozes off again, only rousing himself when a nice woman offers him a treat.

"DOES MY PUGGY WUGGY WANNA NUMMY BONE?"

Chick is on her own sleuthing out the theft of Squeaky Hamburger in this one, but now Wonder Pug has a trick or two under his blankie to soothe the savage beast, in Jennifer Sattler's sequel to her 2010 hit, Chick 'n' Pug, (see review here), Chick 'n' Pug Meet the Dude (Bloomsbury, 2013). Chick, a sort of hyper-frenetic Tweetie Bird, is the real mover and shaker here;  nobody draws comic pugs like Jennifer Sattler, with her heavy-lidded pooch playing the perfect straight man to the over-caffeinated Chick. While silliness is the main order of the day, Sattler's simple premise--that good friends are sometime wildly dissimilar--comes through as loud and clear as Chick's histrionics.