Dog Man, Mothering Heights: A Reveal of Kindness

Mothering Heights from the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey, is a book about Dog Man and his friends, Li’l Petey (LP) and 80-HD, as they spread kindness and fight bullies. While that happens, Petey tries to become a better person.

Petey was once the world’s most evil cat; he even went to jail and escaped several times. In the third book, A Tale of Two Kitties, Petey tried to make a clone of himself. However, it turned out to be LP, who was kind-hearted!

In this book, Petey wouldn’t have tried to be a good person if LP weren’t there. LP’s kind heart convinced Petey to be good. When LP wasn’t there, Petey would rob banks, turn cops into mindless zombies, and make every single book in the world blank. He’d do all sorts of evil things.

Pilkey included a “Meet the Cast” page at the beginning of this book which made it easier for readers to understand the characters, including the new ones we haven’t met yet! This page also featured some strengths and weaknesses of each of the characters.

As the book goes along, the readers actually see those strengths and weaknesses. Also, when a character makes a mistake, they learn from it, and so can the readers. For example, when LP and Molly had drinks, they left their sippy cups on the floor. That then led to grandpa hiding in the robot suit but tripping on the cups, revealing it was him. At the same time, the sippy cups came to life and grew extremely big due to the Living Spray and Cannery Grow.

It’s clear that Pilkey made lots of entertainment in the book. For example, there are Flip-e-Ramas and parts that are really exciting! Flip-e-Ramas are two pages that you flip really fast, and then it looks like they are animated!

In summary, of all the books in the Dog Man series, Mothering Heights is the one that balances kindness and character growth. Dav Pilkey did a good job of entertaining us readers while still informing us about how strong kindness can be.