The Bad Guys

07/06/2021

Book Review: “The Bad Guys” by Aaron Blabey

What do Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, and Mr. Shark all have in common? If you guessed that they are all misunderstood and aren’t bad guys at all, you’d be right! In this laugh-out-loud first book of the hilarious Bad Guys series, we are introduced to the four members of the new Good Guys Club, as Mr. Wolf ropes them into doing good deeds.

Each character’s rap sheet is funnier than the last, except for Mr. Shark’s, whose crimes appear to be so bad that Mr. Wolf blocks us from seeing them.  Among the charges: Mr. Wolf has attempted to eat old women and their relatives, Mr. Snake ate all the mice, canaries, and guinea pigs at Mr. Ho’s pet store, Mr. Piranha eats tourists, and we are advised that Mr. Shark “will eat literally anything”.

The unlikely quartet gets into their super-charged superhero car and go off in search of trouble they can correct. Their first opportunity is to save a cat stuck in a tree.  Imagine if you were a cat and below you, calling “Here kitty” were a wolf, a shark, a snake, and a piranha, all of them showing big, toothy grins.  This is the conundrum this fearsome foursome faces as they try to make their name as good guys.

Sure to get kids laughing, The Bad Guys would also be a fun read-to-me for adults with a sense of humor who don’t mind fart jokes (yes, the book has those, too). This book is fun on many levels, and with a whole series coming behind it, not to mention a movie from DreamWorks, kids will be asking for it and its successors! You can find the book, and the whole series, here.