DC Super-Pets!: Super Hero Splash Down

Super Hero Splash Down by Jane Mason. Illustrated by Art Baltazar. (Canada) - (US)
DC Super-Pets! series

Pages: 52
Ages: 6+
Finished: Mar. 7, 2011
First Published: Jan. 2, 2011
Publisher: Picture Window Books
Genre: Easy Reader, Superheroes
Rating: 4/5



First sentence:

"This is the life." B'dg exclaimed.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Capstone Publishing.

Reason for Reading: Ds read aloud to me for his reader. This is his first official "chapter book".

This new series "DC Super-Pets!" is a younger sibling to the already established "DC Super Heroes" series by the publisher. While the latter series is for established, and perhaps reluctant readers, this new series is for emergent or reluctant readers. All six books in the series are at a GR. 2 level with this one being the easiest at a RL:2.3. Following the same format as the established series, DC Super Pets uses colourful cartoon graphics for all the sound effect words. It goes on to make the books more appealing to younger readers by using different colours of text for each character's spoken words. There are also illustrations on every page, using a variety of formats from full-page to half-page to single illustrations amongst the text. This may sound crowded at first but the lines of text are double spaced creating a nice graphic display, easily read on each page.

This story features the Green Lantern's pet, a space alien chipmunk named B'dg. B'dg insists he is pals with GL, not his pet. B'dg is enjoying a day off from saving the universe at Waves O' Fun water-park when Red Lantern corps member Dex-Starr Kitty arrives and starts a fight with B'Dg. Their tousle takes them into outer space where they meet up with the 4 member group of Yellow Lantern Dogs, a bunch of thugs, who overhear about Waves O' Fun and decide to descend upon it. B'dg and Dex-Star must join forces if they are to keep the water-park safe from these oafs.

Ds had a hard time reading this book. He is a struggling reader and struggled with words he really does know. This is a continuing problem he faces. I helped him along quite a bit with the reading so that he wouldn't reach frustration level as he took to the book as soon as he saw it. He loved the action and the characters. He is a cat person, so found Dex-Starr to be his favourite character and thought his antics were funny. He thought the whole book was fun and enjoyed the action. Though he didn't appreciate the ending which implies that a superhero's work is never done. He wanted to see another battle (LOL).

Capstone's books always bring out enthusiasm for the story and reading in general in my son. Even though he struggled with the reading, my careful guidance at balancing his effort without it becoming frustration, along with his eagerness to read the captivating story brought about a pleasurable reading experience and he's looking forward to reading another book in the series.