DC Super-Pets!: Heroes of the High Seas

Heroes of the High Seas by J.E. Bright. Illustrated by Art Baltazar. (Canada) - (US)
DC Super-Pets! series

Pages: 54
Ages: 6+
Finished: May 16, 2011
First Published: Jan. 2, 2011
Publisher: Picture Window Books
Genre: Easy Reader, Superheroes
Rating: 5/5



First sentence:

Topo the Octopus loved playing music for his friend, Aquaman, the king of the underwater city of Atlantis.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Capstone Publishing.

Reason for Reading: Ds read aloud to me for his reader.

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 at a RL:2.9. 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 was our favourite book in the series! (though we do have one more to read) Pure superhero action and story from beginning to end with no accompanying ecological tie-in, or thinly disguised lessons or values displayed. A whirlpool is found close to Atlantis City threatening it's very existence. Aquaman and his trusty steed, Storm the Seahorse, along with fellow companions an octopus and a seal go to investigate. They find a diggler at the source, causing the underwater tornado, but digglers are usually very peaceful animals. What has upset this animal so much? It doesn't take long to find out that Black Manta and his Manta Ray cohorts are behind the scheme to ruin Atlantis and everyone goes into full superhero battle mode.

A fun, exciting story from start to finish with lots of action. My son's not too familiar with Aquaman but he likes him just fine, especially that he can mind communicate with all the sea animals. If you aren't picking your books on superhero alone, then I recommend this one as a must buy in the series based on story alone.