Description
From School Library Journal Gr 4–6—From the author of the popular "Odd Squad" series and the syndicated comic strip Over the Hedge comes a tale where superheroes and supervillains are real, though their battles, which once destroyed Boston, are now staged like professional wrestling bouts. Our protagonist is the young Victor, a good kid born to supervillain parents. Wanting to please his mom and dad, he signs on as an apprentice to "the Smear," a supervillain whose power is the ability to stain. The narrative takes some strange turns: there are good bad guys and bad good guys, the mysterious Authority that enforces the truce between heroes and villains, helicopter parenting, and a rebellious tween. The various strands of the plot don't always flow together evenly, and readers may feel the book lacks a unifying story line as the boundary between good guys and bad guys becomes blurred. The illustrations, however, keep the tone light, and the irreverent humor that middle graders relish will go a long way to capturing their interest. VERDICT Superhero fans will enjoy this tongue-in-cheek take on the genre. For large collections.—Matthew Forster, Big Words, Clarkston, MI Praise for How to Be a Supervillain : A National Bestseller! An IndieBound Bestseller! A Parents' Choice Award(R) Winner! "The irreverent humor that middle graders relish will go a long way to capturing their interest. Superhero fans will enjoy this tongue-in-cheek take on the genre."― School Library Journal "In this clever world, Over the Hedge comic-strip author Fry achieves an ideal balance of humor, poignancy, and zippy superhero/bad guy action, punctuated with frequent amusing black and white illustrations."― Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "Fry has written a hilarious story about an unlikely hero and masterfully incorporates the illustrations into the narrative. Victor's story is sure to be a hit among reluctant readers and fans of illustrated novels."― Booklist "This riotous story about heroes and villains will leave kids howling for more!"― Lincoln Peirce, New York Times bestselling author of the BIG NATE series "Being bad at being bad has never been such good fun!"― Chris Grabenstein, NYT Bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library "Part novel, part comic, Michael Fry's humor shines in Victor Spoil's journey to discovering his true self!"― Dan Santat, Caldecott-medal-winning author of The Adventures of Beekle and illustrator of the Mighty Robot series with Dav Pilkey Michael Fry has been a cartoonist for over 30 years and is the co-creator and writer of the Over the Hedge comic strip, which was turned into a Dreamworks film starring Bruce Willis and William Shatner. He lives near Austin, TX. Read more
Features & Highlights
- In this rollicking middle-grade adventure and national bestseller, Michael Fry's witty text and hysterical artwork combines superhero action with classic fish-out-of-water humor.
- Victor Spoil comes from a long line of famous supervillains and he's fully expected to join their ranks one day. But to his family's utter disappointment, Victor doesn't have a single bad-guy bone in his body. He won't run with scissors, he always finishes his peas, and he can't stand to be messy. Hopeless! As a last-ditch effort before they give up and let him be a -- gasp! -- civilian, Victor's exasperated parents send him to apprentice under a disgraced supervillain called The Smear. This matchup starts off as a complete disaster, but Victor and The Smear eventually find that they have a lot to learn from each other. When the stakes get high as Victor is forced to choose between his mentor and his family morals (or lack thereof) . . . what will the world's nicest bad guy do?
