Good Boy

Good Boy follows Charlie and his new dog, Ralph, as they learn to navigate things together. Charlie is having trouble because his anxiety gives him the urge to barf, and he can’t seem to control this. His parents surprise him with a new rescue dog, but this dog seems to have a lot of energy and no real training. Ralph follows Charlie to school one day, and it's suggested that the two of them join a dog agility training group. Ralph takes to this very quickly, and Charlie finds that this is a great way for him to bond with Ralph, but when invited to join the other handlers at the competition, Charlie doesn’t know if he’ll be able to keep the anxiety at bay and keep from barfing. Will the two of them be able to overcome these fears?

What I Liked: This book does a great job of introducing you to Charlie and the ways in which his anxiety manifests itself physically before introducing Ralph. Things get a bit chaotic once Ralph is introduced and the pacing of the book speeds up to match Ralph’s energy. The pacing changes throughout the book as Charlie bonds with Ralph and as they both are able to calm each other down. The book does a great job in showcasing how dogs feed off their owner’s energy and how this knowledge can help a child who is struggling with anxiety.

The illustrations throughout this book move the story forward and make this an enjoyable book for young children who may be hesitant to read. The expressions on everyone’s face throughout the book do a great job of showcasing how each person is feeling, and there are even moments in which you see expressions shown on the dogs which gives them personality.

The relationships between all of the characters is heartwarming, especially the adults that are in the dog agility training group with Charlie. All of the people that he encounters through this group are supportive and only want to help him bond with Ralph. Each of these adults were important to the story and they all helped encourage Charlie so that he was able to compete with Ralph in the agility competition. It was refreshing to see how they all took Charlie seriously by the end of the story and they didn’t doubt his ability to succeed in agility even if at first there were some hiccups with Ralph.

Final Verdict: Good Boy is a sweet and fun graphic novel about how anxiety impacts the day to day life of a child and how to overcome anxiety through the support of others. This book is perfect for children ages 8 and up, and does a great job engaging its audience ensuring that children will enjoy this reading experience.