Superhero Street by Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie
| Superhero Street by Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: Wildly ridiculous, but full of action and excitement and fun! | |
| Buy? yes | Borrow? yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: February 2016 |
| Publisher: Orion Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781444013887 | |
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Having really enjoyed the first book about the children on Storey street, Demolition Dad I was looking forward to this follow up. This time the focus is on Mouse who lives in a rather manic household since after having Mouse his mother had twin boys, and then triplets! Whilst his father is exhausted from trying to earn a living as a magician, his mother is, as you can imagine, run ragged with all the children, and Mouse feels rather neglected. Mouse has a secret means of escape, however, because he leads an imaginary double life and his secret identity is Mouse the Mighty! But what happens when he is forced to become a hero in real life?
As with the first book, this story has a great deal of heart. It's written in a way that really makes you feel for Mouse, both regarding how exhausted his poor parents are and how sad Mouse feels about being left out of things. I also found the story interesting with regards to what happens to Mouse's parents. His dad just suddenly leaves one day, pushed to breaking point, and Mouse's response felt very real as we see him feeling both very angry and very sad. Yet at the same time as dealing with incredibly real and sensitive issues as this, the book is also very silly and very funny too. There's a lot of humour based around bottom burps (always popular with seven year olds) and several moments that did just slightly turn my stomach but left my daughter chortling! There's a very clever balance in the writing, so without any feeling of manipulation the story is both funny and moving.
Mouse's superhero antics come about quite by accident (he and his mother manage to foil a bank robbery on the school run!) and this again allows Mouse to move away from his role as a victim (he gets bullied when some naughty boys discover he wears a cape underneath his school uniform) to being the hero at school. Mouse then puts out a call for other 'unusual' heroes to join forces with him and his mum, and so a lot of the story is about misfits, and how even the most unlikely skill can have its uses.
The book is written in chapters, around 6-8 pages long, so it's best suited to more confident readers, or you could read it aloud for a bedtime story. There are illustrations, but not on every page. They're very well done though, and really bring all the different characters to life. They come at appropriate moments in the story, and I felt they really add to the character of the book. Although it's a story about a boy superhero, my nine year old daughter stole it from reading pile as soon as she spotted it, and very much enjoyed the story. It's a lot of fun to read, and deals with some interesting issues in a sensitive and humorous way. You don't need to have read the first Storey street book to enjoy this one, but I'm sure you'd enjoy that one too!
Further reading suggestion: You might also enjoy reading Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams or if they laugh themselves silly at the fart jokes then see if they fancy a look at this Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy
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You can read more book reviews or buy Superhero Street by Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Superhero Street by Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie at Amazon.com.
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