The Trouble With Leo by Michelle Assarasakorn & Nathan Fairbairn

This fifth installment of the PAWS graphic novel series for Middle Grade readers is too cute!

Jumping into a series on its fifth installment can always feel a little disorienting, so I do recommend reading the earlier books in the series first to get a better understanding of who some of these unintroduced characters are. That said, the book does work as a standalone. I can’t imagine not wanting to get started with the prior books, tho, if they’re anywhere close to as charming as this one is!

It’s been a whole year since a group of girls who weren’t allowed to own dogs, but who really wanted to hang out with them, started a dog-walking service called PAWS. Members have come and gone in the interim but business continues to grow for Gabby, Mindy and Hazel. The girls and their families and friends are having an anniversary picnic at the park when a regrettable encounter between Gabby and her nemesis Leo leads to the latter declaring that he’ll just start his own dog-walking business then.

Gabby laughs it off, but when flyers for a new dog-walking service called SCAMPS start showing up around the neighborhood — staffed by Leo and his friends Brandon and Nolawi — an all-out turf war erupts, with both sides resorting to dirty tactics. Gabby’s big mouth, however, winds up getting Mindy and Brandon assigned to work on their class science project together. As an unlikely friendship springs up between the two, can they figure out a way to calm things down before one of the pet-lovers does something that there’s no coming back from?

I love how generous and warm-hearted this book is, and the much-needed perspective it gives on the beef between the kids. Sometimes people are genuinely terrible and should be shunned because they’re calcified in their hurtful behavior. However, most people — and especially kids — are just poor communicators far too willing to overreact before getting all the information. Teaching kids in particular to have conversations instead of going ballistic is a valuable life skill, so they can grow into people who don’t aggressively protect their own egos by lashing out at others for seemingly no reason. It’s also important to teach that you can’t do bad things in the name of your side, and that fairness is far more necessary than scoring invisible points against your opponent, when the real victory would be working together to ensure a better community outcome.

The art is adorable, and such a departure from the work of Michelle Assarasakorn (under the name MsassyK) that I’m familiar with. The characters are expressive, and scenes flow well from one panel and page to the next, with excellent colors. The fantasy interlude is a trip! This will actually be Nathan Fairbairn’s last title on the series, and while I’m sad to see him go, I’m super excited to see where Ms Assarasakorn will take PAWS next.

The Trouble With Leo by Michelle Assarasakorn & Nathan Fairbairn was published March 3 2026 and is available from all good booksellers, including