Captain Awesome Takes a Dive

Captain Awesome Takes a Dive by Stan Kirby is a superhero story for 5 year olds about a boy who is not at all sure about the deep end.

What happens

Eugene McGillicudy has a secret identity. So does his best friend Charlie. Together they're Captain Awesome and Nacho Cheese Man, and they have a hamster sidekick called Turbo who travels in a plastic ball.

School has just broken up for summer, so the plan is simple. Swimming lessons, and seventy-one days of defeating evil.

Evil, in this book, is whatever is nearest. The school cook dishing out vegetables is Dr Yuck Spinach. The classmate in pink is Little Miss Stinky Pinky. The lifeguard who blows his whistle at them is a double agent. Eugene's own baby sister is Queen Stinkypants from the Planet Baby.

Then Eugene sees something at the bottom of the deep end. Something blobby. And this is where the book quietly becomes about something real.

Because Eugene doesn't want to jump off that diving board. He tells the teacher he needs the loo, locks himself in a cubicle and sits there while everyone else takes their turn. Then he lies to his best friend about why.

Do you remember being small and certain that everybody else was fine about the thing you were dreading? There's a line in here about the twisting in his stomach turning into a dull ache that wraps itself around his heart. That's exactly it.

He doesn't stay in the cubicle. But nobody tells him to be brave, and he isn't teased out of it either. He talks himself round, with a little help from a hamster.

Two small things to know. It's American, so it's summer vacation and Mom and recess throughout, which your reader may or may not notice. And there's a stretch of proper boys-versus-girls yuck, including a BLECH about accidentally holding a girl's hand.

The rest is sound effects in capital letters, very short chapters and a lot of exclamation marks. It moves fast enough for a child who isn't sure they like reading yet.

What to read next

If your reader takes to the Sunnyview Superhero Squad, there's Captain Awesome and the New Kid waiting for them. Mr Drools the slobbering space dog has a Frisbee hostage in his jaws, and there's a new girl at school whom the boys cannot make their minds up about at all.