Animal Control's Out of Its Depth on This One

My dad told me he learned as a teacher to never intercede in a fight between girls. The last time he tried, his shirt pocket got torn off and the assistant principal gave him a lot of shit for some reason. But assistant principals are known to be cocks, so that part's no surprise.

The Case of the Good Boy, the second Bad Machinery collection, again finds the boys - Linton, Jack, and Sonny - and the girls - Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred - on seemingly unrelated paths that end up intertwining. The boys, mostly spurred on by Jack's desire to solve a "manly" mystery, investigate the rash of baby disappearances in town, which point to some great, hairy beast that lurks in the woods.

Meanwhile, Mildred guts her way through winning a rigged carny game to get a pencil said to make whatever it draws come to life. Only for her artwork to be soundly mocked by Shauna and Charlotte. Then Charlotte's attempt to demonstrate how to draw a dog shows up rummaging through Mildred's garbage. When the boys get a picture of the baby-stealer, it bears a remarkable resemblance to Mildred's attempt at drawing a dog. Clearly, Mildred's fears the pencil's power could be a Monkey's Paw situation were well-founded. Which raises the question of why she was so determined to win it. 

Also, the pencil was stolen in the confusion of the school's cricket shed being burned down. Horrors! The pencil being stolen part, not the cricket shed burning down part.

Allison mixes some of the characters into different combos this time around. Sonny and Mildred are cousins, so they hang out together at one point. Allison has Mildred seize every chance she can to do the things her parents forbid at home. Chocolate in the previous story, video games here. Charlotte spends time with Shauna's little brother, Humphrey, who she coos over and has no problems being seen in public with, unlike Shauna. One consistency, both between Shauna and Humphrey, and Jack and his old sister: the older sister wants nothing to do with the younger brother. Neither interaction is lengthy or deep, but they set up another line of connections between characters that could get used later.

Jack has a bit of a rough go this time, as he gets targeted by a bully, and screws things up with Shauna by getting so caught up in the mystery he forgets to meet her at the movies. But maybe the bullying earns him some sympathy points?

Linton's also riding Jack's ass about the Shauna thing, and between that and giving Sonny grief about being in the Naturecraft Folk (which proves useful in tracking the baby-snatcher), Linton's a pretty unlikable dick for two-thirds of this story. Jack snaps back at him - and inadvertently pushes him over a bridge - while Sonny just absorbs the snarky comments and focuses on beast hunting.

Also, Shauna and Mildred are not entirely on the same page, and Charlotte's left trying to mend fences or be the connective tissue. Something load-bearing. Mildred's issue seems to be that she feels like she's not really included, or maybe she's the third wheel. I did have the impression, reading this volume, that when either Shauna or Charlotte starting jabbing at Mildred, the other joins in. If they're jabbing at each other, Mildred usually doesn't get in on it. But Charlotte and Shauna have been friends long enough to have an entire list of things they aren't allowed to argue about - which now includes magic pencils - so it makes sense they'd have their own patterns. Which admittedly doesn't do much for Mildred's feelings of exclusion.

I don't want to let the review pass without mentioning Shauna's continued dogging of her stepdad for enjoying Velvet Underground. I have no actual knowledge or opinion about Velvet Underground, I just like that she keeps making digs at him about how bad she thinks they sound. Kids will find a weak point and exploit it ruthlessly.

The ending is strange. In some regards, it's treated as happy. Shauna's "dog", which was originally Mildred's "dog", which was what Charlotte drew, gets to go home. But I'm pretty sure the "dog" Mildred drew ate a lot of babies. Which seems horrifying, yet glossed over. Makes reuniting Archibald with his family bittersweet. Unless Allison is making some comment on parents not keeping a closer eye on their kids. Don't encourage helicopter parenting, John Allison!