Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett

Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett
Buy Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Anne Thompson
Summary: This is a refreshing take on the superhero story and presented in an original format. An entertaining and exciting story that would make an excellent introduction to the sci-fi genre.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 208	Date: February 2016
Publisher: OUP Oxford
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0192743558
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Holly Sparkes is an ordinary 11-year-old schoolgirl, until she is struck by a mysterious bolt of lightning and then everything changes and she becomes extraordinary! Just like one of the characters in her brother's much loved comics Holly has developed superpowers. Holly can generate a massive amount of electricity in seconds, a skill that can, as Holly discovers, cause mayhem unless she can learn to control it. Her brother Joe, an expert in these things, decides to become her mentor and together they resolve to use Holly's new powers to good effect. They get the opportunity sooner than they expect with the arrival in their town of the company CyberSky and the sinister Professor Macavity.

This is an innovative approach to the superhero story being presented in a combination of novel and graphic comic style. The main plot of the story is in book format and whenever Holly's superpowers take over the adventure is presented as a comic strip with illustrations by Cathy Brett. I have not seen this done before and think that it works extremely well and should appeal in particular to readers who find pages of dense text daunting. The story itself is exciting and told with a touch of humour which makes it all the more engaging. Jo Cottrell has caught the voices of children of this age well and I think this is a book with wide appeal. Girls in particular will enjoy having a superhero that they can identify with and the school and friendship aspects of the story will probably attract girls. However boys would enjoy this adventure too as there is plenty of action and Joe is an engaging and likeable character.

The story has a good balance of action and adventure with some definite whizz bang moments but there are poignant and thoughtful moments too. The scenes when Holly falls out with her best friend and worries about her subsequent disappearance are well done and give the story more depth. I also enjoyed the relationship between Holly and Joe with plenty of teasing banter but care and concern too.

The ending promises a further adventure for Electrigirl which is good news as this is a book I can see being very popular with its target audience of about eight or nine plus.

Thank you to the publishers for providing this review copy. If this story gives you a taste for more superhero adventures I can thoroughly recommend the extremely funny The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett 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 Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett at Amazon.com.

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