Super Turbo Saves the DayLee Kirby
George O'Connor, Illustrator
Simon & Schuster, 2016 119 pages
Grades 1-3
Animal/Fantasy/Humor/Adventure
Super Turbo series #1
Unbeknownst to Ms. Beasley's second grade class, the class pet, Turbo the hamster, has a secret life. After the humans leave for the night he keeps classroom C safe by transforming into Super Turbo. One night Super Turbo hears a mysterious noise. A covert escape mission leads him to the source of the noise: a Gecko named Leo who also has superhero powers. In fact Leo introduces Turbo to the other classroom pets in the school and they all have superhero powers. The pets, a guinea pig, rabbit, turtle, bird and fish, all have special abilities and loyalty to Sunnyview Elementary. On this particular night, when SUper Tubo meets the team for the first time, the gang is drawn to the school cafeteria, where they encounter a rat (or is it a mouse?) named Whiskerface, who lives within the walls of the school with his dastardly rodent crew. The Superpet Superhero League is on the case to make the school safe from these menaces. After one pet after another is defeated by the evil, yet tiny, rats it is left up to Super Turbo to save the day. The fun continues in Super Turbo versus the Flying Ninja Squirrels and three other titles. Two more series entries are scheduled for 2018.
This series is very similar in format, level and content to the Class Pet Squad series by Dan Yaccarino released earlier in 2016. That series never went beyond the first installment for some reason. The Super Turbo series is more about the whole team than Super Turbo in particular, but maybe it's named after him because the Yaccarino series got the team name first. This series in question is fun and exciting and is perfect for the target age group who are just dipping their toes into chapter books. A true fiction/comic hybrid, O'Connor, known for the more serious Olympians graphic novel series, offers a cartoon illustration on every page, sometimes in panels, that do not just demonstrate the action, but assist in propelling the plot forward. The reading level for this series is low, the print is large, there are not too many words are on a page, yet the book is not "babyish", making this section not only perfect for new readers, but for older children who may be low readers. There is an order to the series, yet they do not have to strictly be read that way in that each entry is a separate adventure and explains the team and their traits. Superheros and class pets (such as Humphrey) are currently popular and comics are also a draw, making this book a surefire winner, even for the most reluctant of readers.
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