Meet the Super Duper Seven

April 29, 2022

K-Gr 2-An animal dream team is searching for new members. Electro-Elephant and Hypno-Hippo are putting a call out in the bustling city after Hungry Kitty ate the other three other members of their squad: "You ate them? But they're on the cover of our book!" Just as they discover some Super Duper replacements for their team, Hungry Kitty strikes again with a gigantic "BURP!" As their Super Duper team keeps diminishing in number, they will have to figure out a strategy for recruiting heroes while keeping Hungry Kitty at bay. An introduction to the comic medium for early readers, this sequential narrative allows participants to predict each new outcome, no matter how silly the results. Hamilton's pen-and-ink sketches feature delightfully animated characters as well as detailed cityscapes. Digital artwork is also featured, which adds a larger-than-life element to the story. VERDICT The perfect blend of quirky and clever, this graphic novel for beginning readers will also appeal to young comics fans with a sophisticated sense of humor.-Claire Moore

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2022
The Super Duper Seven includes Electro-Elephant ("I can charge your phones"), Hypno-Hippo ("I put bad guys to sleep"), and Hungry Kitty, who keeps eating the smaller team members. This creates an ongoing branding problem, as the Seven become Six and then Five, and the team has to keep buying new shirts. When the heroes run out of money and begin to have (understandable) difficulty recruiting new members, they must consider forming an alliance with a superhero they'd previously rejected. This mid-level beginning-reader comic is silly fun. The cycle of introducing and reintroducing the team allows for repetition that adds to the humor, especially useful with some of the more challenging phonetic feats (words like polka, quarter, and elephant). Hamilton draws with a thin, loose line, and his characters feature tiny eyes in giant heads, visually setting a playful tone. The panels are rich with detail, but the illustrations also clearly support the plot for less confident readers. With their somewhat-less-than-super powers -- e.g., the hero of the story, Polka Don, can make things with string -- this group has its origin in many a children's grassroots club. Long may the Super Duper...Four reign! Adrienne L. Pettinelli

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2022
The Super Duper Seven includes Electro-Elephant ("I can charge your phones"), Hypno-Hippo ("I put bad guys to sleep"), and Hungry Kitty, who keeps eating the smaller team members. This creates an ongoing branding problem, as the Seven become Six and then Five, and the team has to keep buying new shirts. When the heroes run out of money and begin to have (understandable) difficulty recruiting new members, they must consider forming an alliance with a superhero they'd previously rejected. This mid-level beginning-reader comic is silly fun. The cycle of introducing and reintroducing the team allows for repetition that adds to the humor, especially useful with some of the more challenging phonetic feats (words like polka, quarter, and elephant). Hamilton draws with a thin, loose line, and his characters feature tiny eyes in giant heads, visually setting a playful tone. The panels are rich with detail, but the illustrations also clearly support the plot for less confident readers. With their somewhat-less-than-super power -- e.g., the hero of the story, Polka Don, can make things with string -- this group has its origin in many a children's grassroots club. Long may the Super Duper...Four reign!

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)