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?
In this rollicking middle-grade adventure, Michael Fry's witty text and hysterical artwork combines superhero action with classic fish-out-of-water humor.--from the publisher
978-0316318693 320 pages Ages 8-12
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Other books about super heroes/villains: Anderson, John David. Minion. (2014) Bacon, Lee. Joshua Dread (2012) Boniface, William. The Adventures of Ordinary Boy (2006) Carroll, Michael. The Awakening (2006) Cody, Matthew. Powerless (2009) Ferraiolo, Jack. Sidekicks (2011) King, Wesley. The Vindico. (2012) Kraatz, Jeramey. The Cloak Society (2012) McCullough, Kelly. School for Sidekicks (2014) Moore, Peter. V is For Villain (2014) Can you see why the following felt kind of five years ago to me?
Victor's parents are supervillains, but he is a boring rule follower. He gets apprenticed to a lame supervillain named The Smear in order for him to learn some skills, even though his parents tell him that the battles are all staged. Complications ensue. Lessons are learned. Victor comes to terms with who he is. Strengths: This is a Notebook Novel. Just the other day, a student wanted to know if there were more than three The Odd Squad books by this author. Weaknesses: Nothing fresh, and Fry's illustrative style makes me think I'm looking at Berke Brethed's work and I always expect Opus and Bill the Cat to show up. I'm vastly confused by the introductory page of the "Jimmy" books. They query "Who would do the best job of making books that kids will love? Yeah. Kids!" BUT KIDS AREN'T MAKING THESE BOOKS!
320 pages 978-0316318693 Ages 8-11 What I really think: Will buy a copy and use it as Wimpy Kid Methadone.
Recommended by: Karen Yingling, Library Specialist, Ohio USA
See more of her recommendations: msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/
