Stanley, a lovable galoot of a lab, proves himself a master of mischief and mayhem as he once again breaks the house rules in Linda Bailey’s Stanley’s Wild Ride, the rambunctious sequel to Stanley’s Party.

Like many latchkey kids left on their own with too much free time and too little adult supervision, Stanley is a misadventure waiting to happen. After turning his owners’ home into party central for the neighbourhood dogs in the first book, Stanley is now exiled to the backyard. He’s bored and restless until he discovers a loose fence board, then – whoa, Nelly! – he’s off.

With expert pacing and a sure touch, Bailey, award-winning author of the popular Stevie Diamond mystery series, amusingly relates Stanley’s rounding up of his canine cohorts for a night on the town – eating garbage, chasing cars, and racing through the streets on all manner of conveyance, from grocery carts to skateboards.

As before, Bailey colourfully conveys the essentially anarchic spirit of canine (and human) behaviour. One quibble: her flat, nondescript prose fails to match the zing and zip of the storytelling.

But those elements abound in the illustrations of Bailey’s longtime collaborator, Bill Slavin. His textured, deeply hued, deliciously detailed, visually playful illustrations – acrylics on gessoed paper – are a feast for the eye. With verve and wit, Slavin depicts Stanley (whose representation is so tactile you can almost feel his bristly fur) in his many moods, from blue to ecstatic. The ever-shifting perspective, from Stanley’s viewpoint (where naturally his owners are seen only from knees to feet) to the skewed-angle overviews in the double-page spreads, exuberantly conveys Stanley’s experience of doggy heaven.

Even though Stanley ends up in the doghouse with his owners, Bailey and Slavin cheekily demonstrate that his wild ride was well worth it. Most readers will agree.