wild meatloafs

Mad About Meatloaf (Juvenile Graphic Fiction)

Grade Level: 1-4.  Weenie (a dog) and his friends, Frank (a cat) and Beans (a guinea pig) have some humorous and challenging adventures involving meatloaf in this Bad Guys readalike.  Weenie’s owner, Bob, just made some meatloaf and Weenie really wants it.  Frank, a true representative of the naughty side of Weenie’s conscience, encourages him to eat it.  Beans, Team Angel, tries to tell Weenie it’s a bad idea.  Weenie gives in to the meatloaf temptation, but there’s a hilarious twist to this story thanks to his guilt and the combined imaginations of three unusual pets.  Though the vocabulary is thrillingly tricky at times, I think this is a great beginner graphic novel.  It’s not too long, and though it’s short, contains six chapters.  The artwork is excellent, the panels aren’t cluttered, and the text is easy to follow.  I particularly enjoyed going on the hunt for “wild meatloafs” and watching them frolic with a unicorn.  I haven’t met a wild meatloaf before or really even contemplated their existence, so the world I perceived and lived in prior to reading this changed slightly and grew just a few millimeters larger.