This Book Will Self Destruct by Ben Sanders

This Book Will Self Destruct by Ben Sanders. Kane Miller, 2024. 9781684648979






Rating : 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 2



Format: Hardcover graphic novel



Genre: Spy novel, adventure



What did you like about the book? This is a simple story of Agent Harrier, a dog who seems drawn to capture the Dog Man or Greg Heffley crowd. There’s droll jokes that contrast the apparent danger (there’s a bomb in the book!!!) with a devil-may-care attitude of the central character. He is helped along the way by Top Dog, via the Bone Phone, and Red Herring, who turns out to be more than meets the eye. Along the way, Harrier is waylaid by discussions of font size, logic puzzles, bad cell service, and a battle of wits with the narrator of the book itself. The art style is reminiscent of old Soviet propaganda posters and noir film credits– stencil-painted in bright, contrasting red, white, and black colors on flat backgrounds.



Anything you didn’t like about it? If the twists are for you, there’s plenty of them, but the jokes are not exactly the best of their kind. After a while, they became tedious as speech bubbles invaded the page, making the book seem longer than its actual length, yet doing so without really developing the character.



To whom would you recommend this book? Fans of Dog Man might enjoy the similar humor and different art style.



Who should buy this book? Elementary schools.



Where would you shelve it? Graphic novels, near your book series 



Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Skipable unless you want to appreciate the unique art and curious metanarrative.



Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Luke Steere, Wilson Middle School, MA.



Date of review: May 27, 2024