Petlandia

by Peter Hannan, Peter Hannan (Illustrator)

Overview

A houseful of pets has declared their independence--but now they're fighting like cats and dogs!

In Peter Hannan's delightfully absurd, illustrated chapter book PETLANDIA, a family of pets has kicked their snoring, sniveling humans to the curb, and declared the house an independent nation. But who will lead the new country of Petlandia? Tricky feline (and dictator-wannabe) Mrs. Wigglesworth is expecting to be waited on like a queen. It's all foot rubs and ice cream sundaes from here on out! But doofy dog Grub and his lovesick sidekick Honeybaked Hamster want equal representation, and they have the masses on their side. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and soon Petlandia has descended into all-out civil war!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545470414
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	05/26/2015
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Lexile:	610L (what's this?)
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Peter Hannan created the Nickelodeon animated series CatDog. He also wrote and sang the show's theme song. He is the author/illustrator of My Big Mouth: 10 Songs I Wrote That Almost Got Me Killed, the Super Goofballs series, Freddy, King of Flurb, The Greatest Snowman in the World, Escape From Camp Wannabarf, and The Adventures of a Huge Mouth. His work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and galleries and been turned into everything from t-shirts to cheese crackers. He loves pets. He firmly believes that pets should rule the world. He lives in California.

Editorial Reviews

02/16/2015
Hannan targets the audience of his Freddy! and Super Goofballs series with an animal-centric comedy that resurrects some of the canine-feline animosity seen in his CatDog animated series. Madame Wigglesworth, the Finkleblurt family’s self-aggrandizing pet cat, is infuriated by the way the humans dote on pet dog Grub. She engineers a coup d’état that kicks the Finkleblurts to the curb and leaves the pets, which include a lovelorn hamster and a depressed clownfish, in charge of “the sovereign nation of Petlandia.” Hannan’s manic cartooning conveys Madame Wigglesworth’s monomania and Grub’s mental vacancies with glee, but while outlandish moments are frequent, the dialed-up-to-11 energy can grow tiring. Ages 7–10. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for MY BIG MOUTH:"Hannan's edgy, exaggerated style suits the humor-driven narrative."- School Library Journal"...very appealing to fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid."- Statesman Journal"Hannan delivers the requisite giggles...."- Horn Book

From the Publisher

03/01/2015
Gr 2–5—The Finkleblurts have a new pet pup, Grub, and their cat, Madame Wigglesworth, is not amused. As irritated as Madame Wigglesworth is with Grub, she "hates" the humans "ten times more." She plots revenge and unites the family's pets establishing a new country: Petlandia. She writes a Petlandia Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and a national anthem. She would like to serve as queen, but establishes the country as a democracy where the pets will vote for their new president. Madame Wigglesworth can't believe it when Grub is voted to be Petlandia's president. Now Madame Wigglesworth has a bigger problem: How can she become the next Petlandia president? Cat and dog owners will see their own pets in the stereotypical personalities of Grub and Wigglesworth. The story is silly, goofy, and altogether a riot, but there are genuine lessons to be learned about getting along with others and the the qualities of an excellent leader embedded amid the wackadoodle plot. The story might even prompt a discussion about bullying behavior. VERDICT Told with classic cartoon, fast-paced silliness and drawings, this title is bound to capture the attention of even the most reluctant reader.—Helen Foster James, University of California at San Diego

School Library Journal

2015-01-10
Petlandia: utopia or P-U-topia?Madame Wigglesworth the cat was tolerant of her humans, the Finkleblurts, until they brought home a puppy named Grub. Now they are much more interested in rubbing his belly than in worshipping her. The grumpy feline hatches a plan to get rid of the humans by exploiting Grub's extreme stupidity. Telling him the family will withhold all belly rubs, she tricks Grub into ejecting the family from the house while they sleep. After the humans are gone, Madame Wigglesworth thinks she will again be queen, but a democratic vote among the pets, including love-struck Honeybaked Hamster and Clowny, the depressed clown fish, does not go her way. She enfranchises the rats who live in the basement for another vote. Honeybaked then invites the attic bats into the community…and so on, until the house is destroyed, and the Petlandians take refuge from the rain with the humans in the doghouse. The action takes place amid a mix of unfunny jokes, forced bad grammar and uber-dim characters, making this spin on the eternal conflict between cats and dogs a tedious one. Hannan is the creator of CatDog, Nickelodeon's Ren & Stimpy knockoff, and his reliance on such aural devices as Honeybaked's Brooklyn accent and Grub's baby talk just do not work in print. Nick Bruel's books about Bad Kitty and Puppy are far better treatments of the theme than this tired outing. (Humor. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews