“Animal Pound” by Tom King, Peter Gross, and Tamra Bonvillain
c.2025 / Boom! Studios / $29.99 / 176 pages
Like them or not, here are the rules.
One, two, three, now you know, so accept them because there’s no other choice. This is how things are. Take this to heart — but watch. As in the new book “Animal Pound” by Tom King, Peter Gross and Tamra Gbonvillain sometimes rules change, and it ain’t pretty.
Madame Fifi remembered Lucky well, and she still held his teachings close.
Lucky was a good boy; before he got his needle, he counseled her and taught her how things worked and how former pets were mistreated. Madame Fifi thought about Lucky often; she kept his legacy alive and, along with the good dog named Titan, she honored him.
First, she created a way for the animals to organize themselves: each cat introduced itself to a dog and once they knew their neighbors, Madame Fifi and Titan opened the cages to set the animals free. The dogs then eliminated those who controlled the needles. When the last man was gone from the pound, there was celebration.
And there were immediate problems: the dogs began to chase and kill the rabbits, who wondered if freedom was such a good idea after all. So, Madame Fifi created a voting system, and Titan was elected as the first leader.
He protected the rabbits by devising a way to get food.
It involved getting Piggy, the bulldog, on camera.
Piggy was larger-than-life and attracted donors who loved watching his antics online. It didn’t take long before he was earning a lot of money, more than anyone else at the pound. Outsiders thought he was charming, funny, charismatic, and so did the pound’s dogs, who soon made him their newest leader.
But Piggy talked big, promoting and praising himself, squashing anyone who displeased him. This frightened Madame Fifi, who’d noticed “a horrible miracle.”
Piggy had begun to dream of power and big change at the pound — awful, unequal change — and against their better interests, dogs, cats and rabbits agreed with him…
It’s been 80 years since “Animal Farm” was published and, though countless high school classes have read and discussed George Orwell’s book, authors King, Gross and Bonvillain say in their introduction that the original isn’t the “urgently relevant warning it once was.”
Fortunately, “Animal Pound” is, with an updated version of the story that possesses the same chill as the original, one that modern readers won’t be able to miss. Like in the original, there are lessons to be found but current events are embedded, too, so beware the controversy and conversation points within. If you’re still undaunted, you’ll appreciate that this version’s written in graphic novel form, which makes it more appealing to a wider audience — especially those for whom comic books and colorful artwork are the reading go-to.
Perfect for high school students who want a nice companion to Orwell’s book, this can also be enjoyed by older middle-schoolers or by anyone who’s long past graduation. If that’s you and you loved (or want to revisit) the original, “Animal Pound” rules.
