Melvin Beederman, Superhero – The Curse of the Bologna Sandwich

Greg Trine's The Curse of the Bologna Sandwich is a very silly superhero story for 7 year olds about a hero who never gets off the ground on the first go.

What happens

Melvin Beederman has just graduated top of his class at the Superhero Academy. That's mostly down to his brain, because the rest isn't going so well. It takes him five tries to take off (Crash! Splat! Thud! Kabonk!). Stopping a train is a struggle. And his x-ray vision means that everywhere he looks, he sees people's underwear.

He's sent to Los Angeles, which hasn't had a superhero in years. He hitches a ride on a jet's wing, doing sums in his head the whole way. Then he sets up in a tree house with a TV for cartoons and a big supply of pretzels.

Every superhero has a weakness, and Melvin's is bologna (it's a sort of sliced sausage meat). One whiff and he's on his knees, gasping.

Then disaster strikes. His cape comes back from the cleaners half its proper size, and without a proper cape he can't fly at all. Meanwhile, a third-grader called Candace, who normally only ever gets to play a weed in school plays, has just landed the lead as Little Red Riding Hood. Her cape has come back from the cleaners a bit too long. You can probably guess what happens next!

Children who like jokes that come back again and again will love this. There's always someone in the crowd called Fred. Most chapters are named after a rule of the Superhero's Code, like "Always keep your cape clean". At one point the characters even hear the narrator and tell each other to ignore him.

It's a short, fast read, with lots of sound effects and simple sums dropped in along the way. That makes it great for a newly confident reader who wants something that feels like a proper chapter book but doesn't take itself seriously for a second.

What to read next

If they enjoy Melvin, try The Revenge of the Green Meanie, the first Superhero School book, about a boy called Stan who practises being Dangerboy on his bed until a mysterious letter invites him to a school called Mighty High.