The Bad Guys (the Bad Guys #1): Volume 1

My 7 yo hated reading and I'd been looking for something to catch his interest. He has to read 1 chapter or one (non-chapter) book per day for school. Well, at the end of the first chapter from this book he asked if he could read one more, then one more. He finished the book in one sitting!! I could have cried. The characters are engaging, the subject matter is interesting, even he dialogue is funny. I can see why he loves it. He's already read it a few times. Can't wait to buy the rest of the collection. Thank You Aaron Blabey! You got my kid to want to read!

Hmm…What to hate about this book? Um, being forced to read it three times in one day by my five year old!!! Let’s start with a brief synopsis, so that you can get a better feel for this book. Mr. Big Bad Wolf if trying to convince us in his gruff, Al Capone, no nonsense way, that he’s really not a “bad guy”. He would also have us believe, that his friends aren’t such bad guys either. We, and his friends, aren’t quite so convinced. He’s really the only one who wants to be viewed as a good guy, but his friends decide to go along for the ride…heaven only knows why. As you can imagine, things don’t always go according to plan, and…people might not realize they really aren’t as bad as they look. Ha, I have to say this one was probably aimed more towards boys (and older boys at that), but my daughter loves it. She was cracking up at all the fart jokes, and every other joke to be had. The dialogue is written well enough that it makes it super easy to stay in character, giving everyone their own voice and sticking to it. It’s also an easy read for me as a parent, because it is pretty stinkin’ funny. I just have that sense of humor though. This book takes “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” and brings it up to an older readership. Though there’s no question here, these guys really were bad to begin with. One complaint I have, is that I wish for at least one more scene with them trying to be good. It just seems to end so abrupt, and really did feel like a setup book for the next one to come. It ends with “To Be Continued” for goodness sake. Unfortunately, the next one doesn’t come out until early next year. Gah! So frustrating. Oh well, guess I’ll be forced to read and listen to this one a few hundred (thousand) more times before then. Just gotta say, THE NEXT ONE BETTER BE EVEN BETTER!!! Real quick, I must add, because I noticed that like everyone mentioned the fart jokes, there's only like two of them. So no worries, they're not over the top. They're just written in well enough that they're very worth mentioning.