BIG JIM BELIEVES

Following his debut in Big Jim Begins (2024), the sunnily optimistic purple cat returns to demonstrate the power of positive thinking, despite the best efforts of his misanthropic cellmate, Grampa.

“Just because you believe something doesn’t make it TRUE!!!” snarls Grampa, to which the unfailingly cheerful Big Jim replies, “It does for me.” Once again, Pilkey positions the two cats in comedic counterpoint, using Grampa’s determined negativity to throw into relief Big Jim’s unwavering faith that even “bad luck [can be] a GOOD THING!!!” This is a Dog Man story, and Pilkey accordingly conveys Big Jim’s truth via a madcap plot that finds Big Jim, Grampa, Dog Man, Li’l Petey, Molly the psychokinetic tadpole, and robot 80-HD defending the world against the latest incursion of the terrifying Space Cuties from Space. The mayhem includes some truly inspired Flip-O-Ramas, raining cupcakes, and a fight scene that plays out to lyrics including, “On the First Epic Smackdown…the Cuties gave to me…A punch in my tummy tum-tum” (sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and no doubt soon to be heard on playgrounds everywhere). Pilkey has by now polished his formula, which embeds nuggets of genuinely sweet philosophy in carefully constructed storylines that come across as gleefully anarchic. This outing hits every note, and despite Grampa’s scornful “WHOOP-DEE-DOO,” readers should emerge with an appreciation of Big Jim’s earnest conviction that “it’s about believing in the cupcakes.”

Classic Pilkey.