Suit Your Selfie: A Pearls Before Swine Collection

Stephan T. Pastis has delighted newspaper readers for many years with his characters. In Suit Your Selfie he returns with a collection of comics written with middle-grade readers in mind. There is Pig, innocent, naïve, and hopeful that the world is not as complicated as it seems. We have Rat, the embodiment of unabashed egocentricity. There is Goat, intellectually frustrated by both Pig and Rat. Also included are the hapless crocodiles and their natural prey, Zebra. There are many others in various situations and interactions. The genius of Pastis is the creation of characters that each mimic a little part of ourselves and those we know. The “selfie” in the title seems to be saying we can read these comics, laugh at the characters and then laugh, by extension, at the Pig, Rat, Goat, lemming, Zebra, and crocodile in ourselves. The humor is very accessible. The pun-ish punch lines are obvious enough to get but are still moan-able. This is not the most complicated humor of the author nor is it the lightest. It is a good balance of thought and humor, just right when one wants to laugh at the end of a frustratingly piggish, rattish, or goatish day.