Awesome Dog 5000 (Awesome Dog 5000 Series #1)

by Justin Dean

Overview

Heads up, DOG MAN lovers! Watch out, readers of BAD GUYS! Robotic dog AWESOME DOG 5000 is in the neighborhood and he's. . . well, he's awesome.

Marty, Ralph, and Skyler might make the ultimate secret combo when battling alien-slime ninjas in their favorite video game, but in real life they're just regular kids. That is, until the three best friends discover Awesome Dog 5000, a robotic dog with very real power-ups. Awesome Dog can "bark" a sonic boom, "walk" at speeds over three hundred miles per hour, and "fetch" with an atomic cannon. Life for Marty, Ralph, and Skyler just got a major turbo-boost!

Attention, readers! AWESOME DOG 5000 is a wild action-comedy told through a mix of text and black-and-white illustrations, with a mystery to solve at the end. Can you handle the awesomeness?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525644811
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Series:	Awesome Dog 5000 Series , #1
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	419,582
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Fun fact! Justin Dean is an award-winning writer of television commercials who has led national campaigns for brands such as South Park, Conan, and the Olympics. Now he writes bizarro and funny books for kids, too. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids. Unfortunately, they don't have any robot pets (yet). Visit him at justinwritesbooks.com. You can also find him on YouTube under Awesome Draw 5000 and on instagram @jddean5000

Read an Excerpt

Once Upon a Time in the Future
 
 
It is the year 3001, and the galaxy is at war. . . .
 
For over one hundred years, Earth has been under attack from alien slime ninjas. The bad guys are winning. They have captured the president of Earth and are holding her prisoner in the center of their moon maze base. Only one hero can free her. That hero is Sheriff Turbo-Karate. The mission to save the universe starts now!
 
Sheriff Turbo-Karate used his jet boots to fly through the maze. First, he turned left. Then he turned right. Then he turned left—
 
And was laser-sliced by a slime ninja’s beam sword. It was a surprise attack! Sheriff Turbo-Karate took a direct hit through the chest. His cowboy hat popped off his head as he exploded into tiny specs.
 
The mission to save the universe starts now: Sheriff Turbo-Karate used his jet boots to fly through the maze. First, he turned left. Then he turned right. Then he took a second right—
 
And accidentally stepped in chewing gum. It was another trap! His boot stuck to the floor as bombs showered over him. Sheriff Turbo-Karate was blasted into the stars.
 
The mission to save the universe starts now: Sheriff Turbo-Karate used his jet boots to fly through the maze. First, he turned left. Then he turned right, then turned right again, jumped over the bubble gum, dodged the bomb shower—
 
And was zapped by a shrink ray. The alien slime ninjas caught him and held him prisoner in a stinky shoebox for the rest of his life.
 
The mission to save the universe starts now: Sheriff Turbo-Karate used his jet boots to fly through the maze. First, he—
 
Marty Fontana leaned back in his seat and set aside his video game, Sheriff Turbo-Karate. Marty was ten years old, had spiky yellow hair, and always wore red high-top sneakers. He was bored after trying to beat the moon maze level on his video game so many times. Marty had been riding in a moving van with his mom for hours. They were driving to his new house. Marty’s mom had recently been hired to start a different job—
 
Okay. Wait. Before we get too far ahead, there should be a warning to the reader.
 
BOOK WARNING! BOOK WARNING! BOOK WARNING!
 
If you expected some super-cool, action-packed start with rocket jets and an evil dude and a daring rescue mission, this story isn’t for you.* Our apologies if you were confused. Even though the title of the book is Awesome Dog 5000, this story is actually about a regular kid who moves into a boring old house and starts going to a new school.
 
And really, that’s about it.
 
*All the action-packed stuff with rocket jets, an evil dude, and a daring rescue mission starts later, like, around chapter 11.

Editorial Reviews

05/20/2019

Marty Fontana’s fifth-grade year starts with an unwelcome move to a new town and three glaring social faux pas: accidentally introducing himself as “Farty Montana,” scoring the winning basket for the wrong team in gym class, and failing to bring a sack lunch to avoid the unappealing cafeteria options. Invited to join the “Zeroes Club,” Marty finds a place to be himself, but he goes up against a slighted scientist after he finds a robotic, rocket-propelled dog in his new house, then unintentionally crashes a party thrown by Dr. Crazybrains. As his name suggests, Crazybrains is a caricature of the mad-scientist-bent-on-revenge archetype. This first installment in a planned series is rapidly paced and absurdist, invoking the cartoonish sensibility and visual style of the animated series Dexter’s Laboratory. While character development occurs (in a final scene, Marty sticks with the “Zeroes” over a more popular group), Dean’s debut invests heavily in ridiculous twists and silly depictions, such as Dr. Crazybrains’s transformation into “a little bunny with twenty-foot-tall butt cheeks.” This will find the most appeal with readers looking for engaging chapter books with illustrated elements. Ages 8–12. Agent: Melissa Nasson, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"An awesome ride! Go, dog, go!"—Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"This book will have kids barking for more adventures!" —Booki Vivat, New York Times bestselling author of Frazzled

"Made for fans of the zany humor of Andy Griffiths and Dav Pilkey."—SLJ

“Amplifying silliness to new heights.”—Kirkus
 

From the Publisher

07/01/2019

Gr 3–5—Marty is the new, lonely kid in town until he bonds with Skyler and Ralph over their favorite video game, Sheriff Turbo-Karate (which includes cheat codes that release "infinity farts"), and discovers Awesome Dog 5000, a robot dog armed with jet rockets and mega-cannons. Ralph and Marty are white, while Skyler has a Korean last name. The quartet teams up against Dr. Crazybrains, a mad scientist who creates harmful potions that can make people smell like dirty socks, turn feet into spaghetti, and enlarge bottoms until they can't fit into any underwear. Almost every page is illustrated with black and white anime-style cartoons, which include a seek-and-find game. Among the fart jokes and cannon blasts is a message to be yourself, and to find friends who celebrate your quirks and differences.VERDICT Full of irreverent humor, this is made for reluctant readers and fans of the zany humor of Andy Griffiths and Dav Pilkey.—Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

2019-04-28
A boy and his friends—including a robot dog—face off against the villainous Dr. Crazybrains.

New kid Marty Fontana wants to avoid the dreaded dork label at his new school—so naturally, everything goes wrong in comedically humiliating ways. But standard dork-versus-cool tropes (such as lunch-table-codified social hierarchy) are freshened by amplifying the silliness to new heights (archetypal cool kid Shades sleeps wearing sunglasses to "look cool in his dreams"). The Zeroes Marty ends up befriending are genuinely nice: upbeat, friendly, fact-loving Ralph Rogers and proud-to-be-different daredevil Skyler Kwon. Even better, they like Marty's favorite video game, Sheriff Turbo-Karate, and they all find virtual success via team-up. Celebrating, they discover Awesome Dog 5000, a robot left behind by a mysteriously vanished scientist. When Awesome Dog and Marty accidentally wreck Dr. Crazybrains' birthday party, the pernicious potion-maker (so evil he dubs his butler Mr. Poopsie) vows vengeance. Said vengeance has a few hiccups, but once he captures Marty it's up to the Zeroes and Awesome Dog 5000 to save him. The final battle is cartoonishly ridiculous. The binary moral (coolness is bad/dorkiness is good) is expected, so it's good the jokes are so far out there. All characters appear light-skinned in the black-and-white illustrations; Skyler is coded Asian. The cartoon art (with a surprise at the end) emphasizes the cockamamie, fart-joke-heavy humor.

Ludicrously juvenile, just the way its audience likes it. (Science fiction. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews