This is a super cute book and my kids laughed the whole time. Any book that has a dog in it is a win for us.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It is almost mocking the protagonist for his belief that he can be a super hero. Characters are constantly pointing out to him just how ordinary he is. And the mystery plot is strange, following weird swings without enough evidence.. Its a quick read but an odd one.

When Stevie needs money for a rare comic book, he volunteers to dog-sit his neighbor's spoiled pug, Cupcake. But when Cupcake goes missing, Stevie and his friend Rudy must utilize their "superpowers" to find Cupcake and save the day.

Silly and cute. A bit over the top. Perfect for early elementary/beginning chapter book readers. A fun, quick read.

This is an amazing and exciting story that I'm sure children of all ages will enjoy!
The characters are very relatable and funny and the plot is very interesting!
I also love that this books message is about how everyone can be a superhero in their own way!
So I'd definitely recommend this for any little (or big) superheros out there that wish to read stories about people like them!

Super adorable novel filled with comic book elements, chapters and drawings to engage any young reader!

A young reader that exuberantly takes the unreliable narrator shtick and places it firmly in the world of comic and superhero fandom. Stevie thinks he's been turned accidentally into a superpowered kid, so adopts a costume and the name Commander Universe. He even manages to persuade a couple of friends to dress in their own super-clobber. But he's going to need all the powers of the real superhero when he's asked to dogsit – and the pooch disappears.

This was fun. I did have to quibble that the whole thing is peppered with a kind of numbing name-calling, with Stevie permanently twisting the name of another kid in a kind of bullying way. But I guess it's realistic that kids misbehave like that. It certainly gets brownie points for making the fit babe who owns the dog a disabled woman, or the other way round – the disabled dog owner the noted town beauty. The target audience however will be laughing readily at how absurdly and comprehensively the book and Stevie sustain their thing, of making out everything is the result of mind-controlling squirrels, or whatever it is, and how everything Stevie does is down to a superpower. A superpower that fails him every time, hence the unreliable narrator.

Structure-wise, we get almost pure prose on a couple of pages – perhaps a spot illustration here and there – followed by a couple of pages of the story in comic form, where the recurring joke of the "get off my lawn!" person is to be found. Either way it's very readable, pacey, light-hearted and all done with a sarcastic approach to the kids' imaginative play. Four stars and a dash of extra all make perfect sense.