Cartoon Kid: Supercharged!

Jeremy Strong's Cartoon Kid Supercharged is a school comedy for 8 year olds narrated by a boy who is absolutely certain he's a superhero.

What happens

Casper does the telling. He's called the Cartoon Kid because he's forever doodling and drawing. His teacher Mr Butternut told the whole class they're superheroes, and Casper has taken this extremely seriously.

His best friend is Big Feet Pete, for reasons you can probably work out.

The class has just won the Ethel Snufflebottom Competition For The Best Class In The Whole School, which means Masher McNee and his Monster Mob are out for revenge. Masher is bigger, older and would like to mash Casper and Pete into small pieces.

Then Mr Butternut sets some homework. Bring in something old that you treasure.

Casper has nothing old. He has a chameleon called Colin, but Colin is two, so he isn't even ready for nursery. So Casper decides to bring in his great-gran instead. Gee-Gee is eighty-nine, which he reckons is basically prehistoric.

Mum points out that the doctor is coming to see Gee-Gee tomorrow. Casper wants to know what's wrong with her. She's eighty-nine, says Mum. Since when, Casper wonders, has eighty-nine been an illness?

So Pete borrows the spare wheelchair, one of his mum's oldest dresses, a walking stick, dark glasses and a baseball cap. He has a go at sounding like an old lady and comes out somewhere between that and a frog stuck in a spin dryer.

Then Mr Butternut kisses his hand.

It's that sort of book. The whole thing is Casper talking straight at you in CAPITALS, breaking off to explain a joke he's just made or to tell you what colour his pants are. There are several separate escapades rather than one long plot, including a new teacher the boys decide is a monster, so it's easy to read in short bursts.

A word on the name-calling. The comedy runs almost entirely on nicknames, and not all of them are kind. Hartley is Snotbox. Masher is Mr Stupido. Pete calls Casper a knobbly-kneed mini-person, affectionately, but still. It's all cheerful rather than cruel, and it's clearly the bully who ends up looking daft. Just be aware that a child who loves this will be trying the insults out at breakfast.

What to read next

If they like a narrator who draws on everything, try Tom Gates Best Book Day Ever, where a boy tells you all about his big plans for a homemade costume and the year it went horribly wrong.