DC Super-Pets!: Pooches of Power!

Pooches of Power by Sarah Hines Stephens. Illustrated by Art Baltazar. (Canada) - (US)
DC Super-Pets! series

Pages: 54
Ages: 6+
Finished: Jun. 8, 2011
First Published: Jan. 2, 2011
Publisher: Picture Window Books
Genre: Easy Reader, Superheroes
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:

Ace the Bat-Hound stretched his legs.

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:2.8. 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.

We've now read all six books in this new series. Ds asked if there were any more and I had to tell him this was all there was for now. He's really enjoyed reading this series and it has stretched his reading capabilities. In this book we meet-up with Batman's pooch Ace, he goes to investigate missing sardines from the marina. While there Krypto the Super-Pooch shows up and as a team they find The Penguin up to his usual tricks. Together they take on the villain and his sidekicks, a penguin, vulture and puffin. Another action-packed, superhero story and one of my son's favourites in the series, though his (and my) favourite of the bunch is still "Heroes of the High Seas". Fun book!