A super cute holiday read for children of all ages. Fun to read aloud with great pictures and a good stroyline.

Cute graphic novel for early readers featuring Pup and Dragon on a quest to capture an Elf on Christmas Eve. They come up with a variety of plans to nab the elf, but each time something goes awry. Bold, bright colors and lots of action will engage readers, especially those who are fans of the "How to Catch" book series.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of the book to read and review.

Oh dear. Not good at all – a pell-mell flight through illogical plot points and non-jokes. Much like the author's How to Catch Santa (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5794808161) but as a brash comic and without the poor effort with the rhyming. Two stars definitely seem generous.

This is a fairly simple early reader graphic novel. The vocabulary is accessible and the illustrations support the text well. The plot is fairly silly and won't appeal to adults picking books for children but if the goal is independent reading this is a solid choice.

This was a super fun and cute early reader graphic novel. My almost five year old loves to read this one and think about Christmas. It has great humor for kids and adults and makes us laugh. I would recommend for ages 4-7 and I think it would be a fun addition to any classroom or school library.

My kids love the How to Catch books so I was so excited to read this one with my son! As expected, he absolutely loved it. The story was really cute and tied in really well with the How to Catch and Elf story (which we have read many times!). The pictures were great and it was fun and easy to read. I was a little intimidated by the number of pages at first as my son is only 5, but we got through it quickly and it kept his attention.

I had a hard time putting this book down. We meet two friends who decide to capture an Elf on Christmas Eve. Pup is willing to help Dragon, although they are not too excited about doing this at first. Along the way, we see them try a few different way to capture one. They all fail, but as this story comes to a close Dragon learns a good lesson. Some kids will have a lot of fun reading this book.

Pup and Dragon: How to Catch an Elf by Alice Walstead. A very cute comic book for children over eight years old.

The two sentence review from my 8 year old: REALLY FUNNY! 5 stars.

My longer version: We really enjoyed reading this graphic novel together and we both laughed out loud. He immediately asked if there were more which is always a great sign. The story was simple and fun! A great Christmas read for your graphic novel lover. The dialogue was funny in a way that matches perfectly to 5-8 year old humor. This graphic novel would be great for reluctant readers and the simplicity keeps in manageable. We will seek out the others in this series as well!

This is a cute book especially for kids that like graphic novels. My elementary school daughter read this and really liked the illustrations. She thought several parts were pretty hilarious. I guess that's what happens when you have a main character that is new to the whole Christmas deal.

It is a fairly simple book, but a great level for early elementary school kids. Definitely a good choice for sometimes reluctant readers.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is fun, silly, full of nonsense but nevertheless enjoyable for young readers.

I am always on the lookout for fun holiday books to add to the library. This one is one that will get picked up by kids and read by kids. It is full of enough silliness to keep their attention. Pup and Dragon are on a mission to catch an Elf this Christmas. Of course, everything they try goes hilariously wrong. I believe this will appeal to lower/mid elementary grade students. Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic Arc.

I was lucky enough to get a hard copy of this one at ALA, and the color pictures in person made me love it even more. Kids will adore this new edition of a favorite series.

This is a cute graphic novel that I think will appeal to younger readers, although some of the vocabulary will be definitely too hard for them. Fun illustrations and a fun spin on "How to Catch..." series.

In this, the third book of the "How to Catch" graphic novel series for young readers, best friends Pup and Dragon star in their first holiday adventure!

Determined to trap one of Santa's elves ("He looks like he'd be a fun person!" exclaims Dragon), these lively and determined friends chase Santa all night long as he travels from house to house. The problem is, the pesky little elf outsmarts them every time, laughing all the way. Will Pup and Dragon EVER catch him?

I love having a fresh, new holiday choice for early readers. The large font size and the colorful but simple illustrations will keep kids focused on the storyline instead of on tiny, unimportant visual details. And I love the way exuberant Pup and skeptical Dragon play off each other! These two are great friends, yet very different. Their facial expressions and clever remarks show their unique personalities and will bring lots of giggles.

All that being said, the overall flow of the story was bumpy. Some of the transitions were confusing, and some of the action was SO silly it became a distraction from the story arc (a food cannon? Really?). I'm curious to read another Pup and Dragon book now, to see how it compares.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Kids for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the book to read and review.

Pup is so excited about Christmas but Dragon doesn’t know what it is as he is usually in hibernation. Pup shares all about it Dragon is in and they plan to capture an elf. Things don’t go quite right as they go from one hilarious disaster trap to another.

This was such a fun Christmassy graphic novel, I really enjoyed it so much. I didn’t stop laughing the whole way through these characters are so much fun. I really liked their connection and how close they were with each other and they bounced off each other so perfectly.

It was so funny that everywhere they followed Santa and his elf another trap had been set up and they fell for them and caused so much chaos and disaster all to catch an elf. It was so funny and Santa must have known that they were up to something as they kept following him.

I really enjoyed this adventure the illustrations were amazing and I liked seeing all the story unfolding within the illustrations. It’s a wonderful Christmas graphic novel and is a fun way to explore the holidays. Young readers are going to really love this book around the festive season.

Published: 09/05/23

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Kids, Sourcebooks Wonderland for accepting my request to read and review Pup and Dragon: How to catch an Elf.

Loved the illustrations. The color palette is festive. A cursory flip through was pretty close to what I expected. Just looking at the illustrations, I imagined ornery characters.

The story itself may resonate with kids. I had trouble staying focused. I was bored but mostly I didn't see where it was funny. While I couldn't relate to the story, perhaps you can.

I did like the "How To" draw the characters at the end of the book. I could see myself doing that part of the book with a child. And for that interactive addition, I'm rounding up to three stars.

This is a great beginner graphic novel with a silly premise (trying to catch an elf) in an engaging format. Kids who enjoy other beginner graphic novels will find this to have silly jokes and fun characters. I expect fans of the other Pup and Dragon books will also enjoy this holiday version as well.

I enjoyed the illustrations and the format of the book overall. I would recommend this for young readers and transitional readers.

Cute read all in all. I haven't read any of the Pup and Dragon series prior so I suspect that impacted my read through this book. Because, while the story was fun and the artwork was nice, I found it jumped around a little too much. I get that they were chasing the elf and that they had to do so through a bunch of obstacles that were created by children to catch Santa, but I felt like that was really not played to well with the bulk of the story. The elf and Santa felt secondary, but at the same time, so too did Pup and Dragon. I guess I would have liked things to either focus more on the plot and chasing the elf or on the friendship between Pup and Dragon, and that's why I gave it a 3 star review. The story didn't really resolve very well either, but I won't say more because of spoilers.

I do think that a younger child learning to read or being read to aloud would be ok with the story especially as it doesn't spoil the Santa or Elf on the Shelf idea. They may even really enjoy it, especially if they had read the earlier books. But this was no Bird and Squirrel and that, to me, was what I was looking for when I picked this one up to review.