Read Captain Awesome and the New Kid free in the Little Reads app.
Stan Kirby's Captain Awesome and the New Kid is a very daft superhero story for 5 year olds about a boy who is fairly sure the new girl is an alien spy.
Eugene McGillicudy is an ordinary pupil at Sunnyview Elementary. He is also, secretly, Captain Awesome. His best friend Charlie is Nacho Cheese Man, who fights evil with tins of squirty cheese. (First rule of squirty cheese, point the can away from your face. Charlie forgets.)
The book slides in and out of their imaginations with no warning at all, which is the whole joke. One page they're on rocket bikes escaping Mr Drools's battle station, which is shaped like a dog's head. The next they're cycling round the block, which they call being on patrol.
Then a removal van turns up at the end of the cul-de-sac. Obviously it's aliens. Obviously they've come for the Super Dude comics.
It's Sally Williams, who starts at school the next day and stares at her shoes while a girl dressed head to toe in pink calls her the Cootie Queen. Eugene speaks up, because that's what heroes do. Then Sally's cat goes missing, and an orange cat with white stripes appears on Eugene's windowsill.
This is the third Captain Awesome book, and it stands alone perfectly well.
What makes it work for a newish reader is the noise. CRASH, PFSZZT, ROWWWWWL, capital letters everywhere, whole lines that are only "DOUBLE YUCK!" Eugene's thoughts sit on the page in a different voice from the words he says out loud, so your reader is always in on something the grown-ups have missed.
There's a small kindness underneath all the shouting. Eugene remembers being the new one himself. He remembers exactly how it felt when Meredith took his hamster. The book never once stops to make a speech about it.
Cooties, barf jokes and an evil cafeteria cook called Dr Yuck Spinach who attacks children with peas. You'll know within a page whether that's your household.
If it is, they'll get on with Superhero School. Stan Button is jumping on his bed saving mankind from Dr Doom when a letter arrives inviting him to an interview at a school for the genuine article.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
No trial. No payment. Just download.
