Captain Awesome and the Ultimate Spelling Bee

Stan Kirby's Captain Awesome and the Ultimate Spelling Bee is a giggly superhero story for 5 year olds about a boy who can't spell "boat" and ends up in the school spelling bee anyway.

What happens

Eugene McGillicudy is in Ms Beasley's class at Sunnyview Elementary. He's also, secretly, Captain Awesome. His best friend Charlie is Nacho Cheese Man, who fights evil with cans of squirty cheese.

It starts with every child's nightmare. Eugene gets called up to the board in front of everyone. His word is "boat", his mind goes blank and he writes b-a-o-t (a comes first in the alphabet, so obviously it goes first).

Meredith Mooney, the pinkest girl in class, sings Row, Row, Row Your Ba-ot all the way back to his desk.

Who doesn't remember freezing with the whole class watching? That page is very real, even with all the silliness around it.

Then Ms Beasley announces the weekly test, with extra time with Turbo the class hamster as the prize. And then the big one. A spelling bee for the whole year group, on a stage, in front of the parents, with Eugene and Meredith picked to represent the class.

There's LOTS of silliness from there. Eugene spells everything he can find for a week, including "toilet" in the bathroom (and "potty", just to be sure). The school librarian becomes a villain called The Shusher. He tries to warn the teachers with a secret hopping code that Charlie never quite learnt.

It's like being inside Eugene's head. You hear the gulps and the panic, and then he talks himself round with something his favourite comic-book hero says.

The best bit is the word that comes up at the very end of the bee. I won't spoil it, but your reader may well get the joke a second before Eugene does. And keep an eye on the last few pages, because a mystery superhero turns up.

Expect Mom, second grade and recess all the way through, because it's American. Meredith calls him Poo-gene and Eu-germ, which is about as rude as it gets.

What to read next

If they want more of the Squad, Captain Awesome vs the Spooky Scary House sends Eugene and Charlie out on Halloween monster patrol, where a creepy old house at the end of a street is far too tempting to leave alone.