Super Sidekicks: Trial of heroes by Gavin Aung Than

Super Sidekicks: Trial of heroes is the third book in the series by Gavin Aung Than. These books are graphic novels and follow the adventures of the Super Sidekicks, a group made up of 2 humans (JJ and Flygirl), a dinosaur shapeshifter (Dinomite) and a pile of goo (Goo) who used to be a bad guy.
In this story the superheroes are invited to join an exclusive club, but before they are accepted, they need to pass an extremely hard challenge. The group work together and the story culminates in a win for them and a loss for the bad guy!
I enjoyed the overall sentiment of the story where working together as a team and looking out for each other is the main goal. Trial of heroes certainly had a 'feel good' element to it, especially the ending.
I think children of ages 8 and above will really enjoy this story, especially the images. Gavin Aung Than is a cartoonist for the New York Times and his skills are very evident. The characters have expressions, interesting backgrounds and without them the story would certainly not be as interesting.
My 9 year old son was particularly taken by this book and said: "I thought this book was funny, and it was kind of nail biting or a 'what's going to happen next' type of book. The 4 superheroes were really good and I loved the part where they were trying to beat the stone man. I particularly liked it as it was a graphic novel and I would definitely recommend this one to my friends, hopefully I can find the other books in the series soon."
So overall, this book was a winner and we both agree that readers from ages 7 and up would enjoy it.

Themes: Super heroes.

Lauren Fountain