Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

Making Scents by Arthur Yorinks is a graphic novel telling the story of a young boy who is raised by his parents who never wanted children but always loved (and raised) bloodhounds. The family unit seemed happy, though a bit odd since Mickey Spitz seemed to be raised as a dog as well. Unfortunately, due to an accident, Mickey became an orphan and had to go live with his aunt and uncle (who did not want children). Mickey was strange in that he had been raised as what I would like to call as a pseudo dog so his fitting in at a new school (and his new home) did not go very well.

I found the story somewhat interesting and it could have had some depth but what I noticed was that each time the color of the graphics changed slightly, the story line changed or moved ahead abruptly. So reading the story felt very disjointed with no chance for depth to emerge.

I did appreciate that the uncle did seem to come around and show affection for Mickey – but that was on the very last page.

The graphics did display the emotions of the characters very well.

I imagine the book would be a hit with the very young crowd, especially those children with an affinity to dogs. Myself, unfortunately did not appreciate the lack of flow throughout the story. Nor the fact that a very poignant event (Mickey’s parents dying) was glossed over while the fact that the aunt and uncle so did NOT want children. It just did not feel like a book I would want to read to my child nor have my child read for herself.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

Making Scents does something substantial with a silly premise, demonstrating the value of comics.

As written by Arthur Yorinks, Mickey was found as a baby by Barney and Barbara Spitz, who raised and trained bloodhounds. So he was raised right along with these “brothers and sisters”, including scent training, making his eventual entry into another culture somewhat difficult.

That happens after an accident, with Mickey taken by his aunt and uncle to their home. They’re older, and they never particularly wanted children, and the shopkeeper uncle thinks all kids are crooks, and the dogs are gone. Mickey has quite the struggle to find points of similarity and things they can bond over.

The art by Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline (The Midas Flesh, Adventure Time) is cartoony enough to balance the people and the dogs. The weirder aspects (who left Mickey behind?) are normalized through the happy, open lines and characters. Because this is a comic, Mickey behaving as a dog isn’t as ridiculous as it could have seemed.

The color fascinated me, mid-century shades of pale turquoise and peachy-pink and mustard yellow and a pistachio green. The panels are monochrome, each with only one accent color, but that changes throughout the book. The shades made the story feel both old-fashioned and timeless.

Ultimately, Mickey’s two families make a case for accepting people with all their unique quirks, skills, and yes, wrong attitudes. Everyone in the book is a distinct character, most the kind of person you wouldn't see in real life, spurring imagination.

Mickey is a boy who's been raised a little differently. His parents raised bloodhounds before he was born, and raised Mickey just like his "brothers and sisters". Mickey doesn't see anything different with his upbringing, even if other kids treat him like he's weird. He wants to make his parents proud of him, so he's working on developing his sense of smell, constantly sniffing and honing his senses. A tragedy strikes, and Mickey's sent to live with his elderly aunt and uncle, who don't like kids or dogs - but maybe Mickey can show them that he and his sniffer are more helpful than they realize.

This one was a wacky read. Making Scents reads like realistic fiction - it deals with grief and loss, extended families, and nontraditional families - but it does work on your suspension of disbelief. The opening scene, with baby Mickey being left in the woods for the dogs to find as a test/publicity gimmick sets the tone for the story: two dog-crazy grownups find themselves with a baby that they have no idea how to raise, but they do the best with what they've got. They love their human son as much as they do their canine sons and daughters, but I have to wonder what kind of parent-child relationship you can have if you see your child as equal to a pet that you "master".

Regardless, Making Scents progresses to become a touching story of intergenerational relationships and family. Mickey, his mother's older sister, and her husband have to create their own new family structure when an accident leaves Mickey orphaned. Once again, Mickey is thrust into a family that doesn't know what to do with him, but this time around, he doesn't have anyone or anything to take a social cue from; his aunt and uncle, like his parents, do their best with what they have and stumble along until Mickey's abilities help reveal a potential health crisis.

Unexpected and sensitive, Making Scents is good for graphic novel collections that provide different perspectives.

When a couple who raises bloodhounds has a son, they decide to raise him pretty much like one of their bloodhounds. He is taught to track things by scent, he calls the dogs his brothers and sisters, and he frequently does things the way they do. This isn’t much of a problem until he goes to school. His super sniffer and strange habits don’t win him many friends until his mom arranges for him to demonstrate to the entire school how cool his sniffer talents can be. Unfortunately, just as he was making headway at school tragedy strikes and Mickey must go live with his older aunt and uncle who don’t like dogs and never wanted kids. Is he doomed to a life of misery with a grouchy older couple?

This had moments of cute and sweetness, and I liked the art style. Overall I ended up liking the story, but it was a little odd in places. Mickey might have been easier to swallow if he were actually raised by animals instead of two humans who pretty much treated him like he was one of their dogs. The fact that they raised him to call their dogs his brothers and sisters and such was just weird, bordering on abusive (he was treated like an animal much of the time). It didn’t go quite too far, but it was close. I did like watching how Mickey and his uncle and aunt worked things out, and the ending is a feel good closing. I’m not quite sure why the author/illustrators chose to set this in the 1950s. The scene where a woman threatens to sue the uncle for Mickey’s actions felt like something from today; it would never have happened in the 50s (considering corporal punishment was still practiced in schools, the mom probably would have been thankful for the kid getting punished physically for his wrongdoing). Since this is a preview version I’m hoping an editor catches that and changes it before the final print. Overall, this is a feel good story about an orphan who is an odd duck finding a place where he is loved and accepted.

I kept expecting this to turn into a comedy. Boy behaves like a dog. Loads of room for humor there. So the death of the parents was rather out of left field. Even so, i figured with the kid and pet-hating relatives there would be this process of misunderstanding and proving of the self, proving not only that he can smell things but that it's a useful skill. Instead it sort of sits there in resentment with a random redemption and letting go of his dog-self at the end.

A REVIEW COPY WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR A FAIR AND HONEST REVIEW.

Title: Making Scents
Author: Arthur Yorinks
Artists: Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline
Release Date: June 27, 2017
Publisher: First Second
Review Spoilers: High

Dogs and quirky kids are a staple in middle grade fiction. Whenever you put the two together shenanigans seem to inevitably ensue. Making Scents is a graphic novel that starts off with the promise of silly, young Mickey and his gaggle of bloodhound friends having all kinds of adventures. But the book quick changes pace and becomes a much deeper story – something that I’m not sure is to it’s credit.

Making Scents is the story of one young boy named Mickey who was raised by some serious dog people. His parents made a living raising bloodhounds and with that many dogs around Mickey developed something of a dog complex. Gifted with a sense of smell almost on par with his four-legged siblings, he lives a happy life with his very eccentric parents – until they are killed in a car accident and his whole life turns upside down.

Mickey finds himself seperated from the dogs he’s known and loved his entire life and sent far away to live with distant relatives he’s never met. His Aunt Jou Jou is kind but her health is failing and her husband, hates dogs only slightly more than he hates kids. It’s a dynamic that feels familiar to readers as recent orphans forced to live with seemingly uncaring family members is something of a middle grade trope.

Honestly, I’m a little over ‘tragic’ stories inevitably involving the kids’ parents being killed in some way. I think that Making Scents might have been a much better book if Mickey had just been allowed to be a kid having adventures with his kooky parents and their pack of bloodhounds.

That’s not to say that the story we get in Making Scents is bad.

For the most part, it starts off strong and the first half of the book is pretty great. That is, of course, the part of the book he spends with his parents. After that, the story kinda falters. A lot of it has to do with just how awful Mickey’s uncle is to him once they’re forced to live together. He’s very vocally against kids and talks poorly about Mickey’s parents in front of him immediately after they died. The guy seriously lacks compassion.

A big part of the book focuses on Mickey and his uncle learning to live with one another – but one set back and he’s back to his mean self. In the end, he comes around and everything works out. But the journey there is hard to stomach sometimes. He’s constantly getting on to Mickey about his dog-like habits which while understandably not socially acceptable are part of the character’s charm. There could have been a lot of potential there if the book had embraced a different plot – instead his abilities get sidelined and shoehorned into the book’s ultimate messages about grief and change.

Making Scents‘s story ultimately focuses a lot on the different ways people react to grief. In that way, I suppose the story succeeds. We see Mickey struggle with the fact that as a child he has little control over his life or what happens to him. And we later see Uncle Irv struggling with the potential loss of his beloved Jou Jou – and the daunting task of then raising Mickey by himself. Unfortunately, as the latter half of the story shifts it’s focus, Mickey’s dog-like abilities seem to be less important. Their final use simply leads to a somewhat climactic argument between Mickey and Uncle Irv.

Ultimately, as far as middle grade graphic novels go, Making Scents is a decent read.

Now, the illustrations in this book are amazing.

I love the character designs and the clever use of simple color palettes. Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline are a married couple who do some pretty amazing work together. And while the story itself is okay, one of the best parts of the book is actually the ‘making of’ section they included in the back. Lamb and Paroline discuss all the parts of making a graphic novel – from scripts to color choices to character design and more. It’s a super cool addition to an otherwise just okay read.

I can’t say that Making Scents is necessarily anything special but I did enjoy the read more or less. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the story had taken any number of alternative directions but over all Yorink tells a good story with a message that should resonate with readers. That said, Making Scents is probably better suited for it’s target middle grade audience than older readers as middle grade readers are more likely to be forgiving of the usual genre tropes.

Give it a read if your looking for a book with a strong message about grief and learning to accept change – but pass if you’re hoping for a fun story about a boy and his dogs. You won’t get that here.

This is a silly story that is mostly fun and a bit sad. He was an abandoned baby that is adopted by a man and his wife who raise dogs. They train the boy just like they do the dogs...

First Second Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published June 27th.

He loves his parents and his "brothers and sisters" (the dogs). He has some trouble learning to use his nose well for dog work but he tries hard and manages to find his father's glasses so he's well on his way to dog life. Then they decide he must go to school. That's a real experience. You don't do dog at school...

By telling a teacher the fish she was going to eat was bad, he finally gets accepted at school. They're even going to feature him during the assembly. But bad luck hits and while he's showing off his nose skills, his parents die in an auto accident. He then becomes the ward of his mother's older sister and her husband. The husband doesn't like dogs or kids, so it's a tough situation.

While this novel is done in graphic form and is easy to read, it covers the death of his parents which is sad. The ending brings everything together and a family is formed again so it's not hopeless. I'd just suggest you talk about the story if your child seems troubled. The story starts odd, has the dog angle, and ends up fine but since the deaths are unexpected, it even bothered me.

Mickey lived a happy life with his adopted parents and many canine siblings. When Micky's parents died in a horrible car crash, went to live with his childless dog-hating relatives. Will they learn to accept Mickey for who he really is? Great theme about acceptance and tolerance.

When this book started I thought I would love it. Puppy Parents who normally raise bloodhounds have a child. They raise the child to act like a bloodhound. To use his nose to it’s best advantage. That got a little annoying by the time the kid was in school, but it was still interesting. Then when things finally settled into a decent pace, there is tragedy. And it just gets worse from there. I’m fine with the tragedy from nowhere scene. But then time starts skipping and his Uncle wants the boy to act like a human, and not a dog. Plus all kids are crooks. I just lost interest and respect for the title. The story could have gone anywhere and been a great graphic novel for younger readers, but it was either not absurd enough, or two real that it makes fun of itself. I did like the art. They use simple three color illustrations and besides black and white, the third color changes frequently. I like the look and the format of the book, I just did not like the story.

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