Captain Awesome Goes to Superhero Camp

Captain Awesome Goes to Superhero Camp by Stan Kirby is a summer holiday adventure for 5 year olds about a boy whose dream camp comes with a rival.

What happens

The summer holidays have started, and every villain in Sunnyview has been dealt with. Even Little Miss Stinky Pinky (Meredith, to everyone else) is off to a sparkly princess camp. Eugene is bored.

Then his mum hands him a brochure. Camp Ka-Pow. Fifty acres of superhero training for heroic boys and girls. And his best friends Charlie and Sally are coming too!

Could anything be more perfect? For Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, this is basically a dream come true.

There's a laser course made of orange yarn (Eugene ends up wrapped like a fly in a web). There's flight training on a zip line. There's super-handcuff practice with unbreakable rope from Planet Rope-a-Ton. There's even a counsellor called Super Todd in a yellow jumpsuit.

And then there's Eric.

Eric walks off with Eugene's bag (by mistake, it turns out), then bags the top bunk. At the welcome icebreaker it turns out he's Amazing Man, with a crew of his own and a pet iguana sidekick. Eugene decides at once that they're villains in disguise.

Is there anything more annoying than someone who loves the same thing you do just as much? The first time they share a table, it ends in a dinner-hall food fight. (Mac and cheese makes a terrible hat, as Eugene finds out.)

It's very funny and very busy. There are sound effects in capitals everywhere, and all the campers have brilliant made-up powers. Bat Knight can hang upside down without getting dizzy. Super Silent Sam is quieter than the quietest mouse.

The camp has three rules, and the third is all about teaming up. You can probably guess where that's heading, but it's lovely when it gets there.

Being American, it's summer vacation and cabins. There's nothing scary, and the worst anyone does is throw mashed potato. This is the fourteenth Captain Awesome book, and it works fine on its own.

What to read next

If they love the idea of training to be a superhero, try The Revenge of the Green Meanie by Alan MacDonald. Stan Button is jumping on his bed saving the world when a silver envelope arrives inviting him to an interview at a school called Mighty High.