The Dog Man 13-Book Series: Dog Man #1-Dog Man #13, by Dav Pilkey

Why it's worth it

Dav Pilkey's Dog Man mixes comic panels, speech bubbles and short blocks of text, so a page never looks like a wall of words. Thirteen books give a child half a year of reading before you have to pick a new series.

The format is the whole reason this works. Reluctant readers usually aren't struggling with words — they're struggling with the sight of a dense page. Dog Man breaks every page into panels and speech bubbles, so your child is decoding constantly without ever facing a paragraph that looks like a chore. Literacy researchers have made the case for years that comics build the same decoding and comprehension skills as prose. Kids just don't notice they're working.

Owners describe a specific pattern with these books: a child who fought bedtime reading starts asking for it. That's the thing you're actually buying. Books run about 50 to 60 pages, which a 7-year-old can finish in two or three nights, and finishing a book fast is its own kind of fuel. Momentum matters more than page count at this age.

From our review of 8 chapter books for early readers ages 6 to 8, by Genevieve Dubois, Home & Living Expert

What we like

• +The format is the whole reason this works
• +Owners describe a specific pattern with these books: a child who fought bedtime reading starts asking for it
• +Under the slapstick there's more going on than parents expect
• +Buying all thirteen at once solves a problem you'll otherwise hit repeatedly

What to know

• –The humor includes potty jokes and cartoon violence, and it's not incidental
• –This is a big upfront commitment for a child you haven't confirmed will bite
• –The books teach almost nothing factual