Cute, silly fun, with an escaped classroom pet story turning into a tale of superhero substitute teachers trying to save the world from evil classroom pets. I have some issues with the story- the MC, Milton, is responsible for the ferret escaping, as he forgot to latch the cage. While this was an accident, I did expect some sort of reprimand about responsibility, keeping the pet safe, all that stuff. The tech could've been more James Bond and less Get Smart, something more easily hidden than a communication helmet, especially as the helmet didn't play into the story. However, overall this was fun, and has some elements like end-of-chapter questions and encouragement, and end-of-story prompts to engage readers. Not a bad start to a series, not great, but not bad!

#NetGalley

This one was a bit too inexplicable for me. WE start with a standard classroom and suddenly turn to an international organization fighting an evil classroom pet. It takes itself too seriously for me to find it enjoyable.

2.5 stars = Mostly solid to solid, okay overall but some issues

The premise here is a lot of fun. I was hoping for something like Super Turbo meets Lunch Lady. But I was disappointed by this one.

At first it was little things - what school allows second graders outside for recess at the start of the school day - twice - with no adult supervision? Why would a secret agency build a communication helmet with a speaker on the outside rather than a secure, silent head set? How does Milton know the name of weapons in a hero/villain battle he didn't know existed before? These are things that could have been easily solved with a couple sentences (or different tech - a watch or a tablet where Milton would have heard everything) that would still allow for what needed to happen so the story could move forward. Minor tweaks to the details would have fixed this.

But even bigger than these details was the fact that when the truth of the story is laid out, Milton summarizes it in his head rather than readers getting to enjoy the discovery along with him. Instead of a scene where Milton listens to all the details about the secret substitutes and Noah the evil ferret and thinks about what he is hearing while the reader is along for the ride, Milton jumps to the "here is what I heard, now what?" and I felt robbed as a reader. A few extra paragraphs in this section would have done a lot to bring the reader right into the action, the disbelief, the excitement of the moment and launched both Milton and the reader into the resolution of the situation. It felt like a missed opportunity to me.

Pretty cute. I thought this was going to be a graphic novel when I downloaded it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find an early chapter book. Fun, light, and a story that makes sense. I will have to look for further adventures of the S.O.S.

In this action adventure early chapter book, Milton's mom is part of a secret organization called Society of Substitutes. When she shows up as a sub in Milton's class unexpectedly the action starts! I enjoyed reading this one and plan to add it to my list of early chapter books for boys. The encouragement at the end of the chapters is a great touch and the added activities at the end of the book are excellent!