Super Turbo vs. the Flying Ninja Squirrels

February 1, 2021

Gr 1-4-From eating pellets to using the exercise wheel, Turbo the hamster takes his duties as the official classroom pet of Classroom C seriously. But at night, when strange sounds disturb his rest, he dons a pair of green goggles and a cape and becomes Super Turbo to protect the school from wrongdoing. In Saves the Day!, the intrepid hamster creates the Superpet Superhero League (comprised of a gecko, a guinea pig, a bird, a turtle, a goldfish, and a bunny), who stop Whiskerface (a mouse who insists that he's "a big, mean, nasty rat!") from conquering the school and then the world. In Flying Ninja Squirrels, the gang takes a side adventure to learn how to make model volcanoes before helping the ninja squirrels recover their golden acorn from Whiskerface. Costanza's fully colored, action-packed cartoons maximize characters' expressive reactions, with hilarious results. Though fairly low-stakes, the tale is playful and humorous, with Turbo breaking the fourth wall by interacting with an unseen narrator (when the two quibble over whether Turbo's leap through the air is "jumping" or "flying," Turbo stresses, "That was definitely flying!"). VERDICT A fun, straightforward graphic novel series for young readers interested in comical superhero type characters without too much drama.-Amanda Melilli, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas

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