My Brother Is a Superhero

My Brother Is a Superhero by David Solomons is a very funny adventure for 9 year olds about the boy who missed the moment his brother got superpowers.

What happens

Luke Parker is eleven and knows everything there is to know about comics. His big brother Zack does maths homework in his school shirt because he says it puts him in the right frame of mind.

One evening they are both up in the tree house. Luke needs a wee. He climbs down the rope ladder, goes into the house, and comes back up five minutes later.

In those five minutes a spacecraft from another dimension parked outside the tree house. A glowing figure called Zorbon the Decider stepped out on a beam of light, explained that the tree house is the junction between two universes, gave Zack six powers and left him with a warning. Nemesis is coming.

Luke was in the loo.

He is not going to let that go. He keeps a list of everything he cannot stand about his brother. Before the superpowers it had reached sixty three. Now it is nearly a hundred.

Reading it is like having Luke talk at you without pausing for breath. He tells you what he said out loud and then what he was really thinking, which is usually ruder. He gets Zorbon's name wrong on purpose. Bourbon the Diskdriver. Zardoz the Decoder.

He is also properly jealous and he does not hide it. Green as the Hulk, he says, worse than the Christmas Zack was given an iPhone and he got shoes. If you have got two children in the house and one of them has ever had a slightly better birthday, you will know that exact tone of voice.

The comic book references come thick and fast. Telekinesis gets a proper explanation. So does the rule that you do not just pick the saviour of mankind at random (there is supposed to be a prophecy). Your reader does not need to know any of it beforehand. Luke explains everything, usually smugly.

Be ready for the silly end of funny. There is a wee that changes the course of history, a father and son chat about puberty that goes nowhere because Luke only wanted to know whether Zack would start sounding like a Dalek, and a long row about a tattoo. Nothing in the opening is frightening.

What to read next

If Luke's running commentary goes down well, My Evil Twin Is a Supervillain picks the story up later on, with Luke flying Zorbon's stolen ship himself and a superpowered version of him to deal with.