Parents' Guide to When Mr. Dog Bites

Parents need to know that When Mr. Dog Bites is about a British teen boy with Tourette's syndrome. Readers will learn about other conditions, including autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Main character Dylan's a loyal friend who stands up for Amir when people are racist toward him, and he tells off his dad after he learns he used to hit his mom. He also says, "I didn't ask to have [Tourette's]...You can't catch it like sneezes. You don't get it because you have been bad or are ugly or something -- you're just born with it." There's lots of swearing, as well as racist words against Dylan's Pakistani friend, and offensive words about women and gay people. As part of Dylan's Tourette's syndrome, he involuntarily uses a lot of ugly words (including "c--k," "c--t," "s--t," and more​) ​when talking to people. Dylan gets into some altercations, both physical and verbal, and is harassed and threatened by boys at a park. He's upset when he learns that his father used to treat his mother like a "human punching bag." There's talk about sexy teens and teachers, sexy thoughts at night, and masturbation -- and Dylan puts wanting to have sex with a girl on the list of things to do before he dies. Also, a girl spends the night with a boy, two teen boys go to the store to buy condoms, and a boy has sex with a girl when he's left alone in the house, though not much is described beyond kissing. A boy brings alcohol to a school dance, and another girl shows up there very messed up after drinking and smoking marijuana. Dylan's dad often drinks too much at the pub, and Dylan suspects two boys who harass him at the park are drinking and on drugs.