A tween book review of the new middle-grade fiction novel The Super Life of Ben Braver—the first book of a funny new adventure series that combines superheroes, comic strips and an ordinary middle school boy. 

I tucked my 11-year-old into bed one night last week with Marcus Emerson’s brand new book The Super Life of Ben Braver. Since she’s big into superheroes, I had a feeling it was going to be a hit with her.

Filled with art and comic strips, The Super Life of Ben Braver is the story of an ordinary middle school boy. Ben loves TV and comic books and peanut butter cups. But when he hears a kid scream for help one day, he decides to be like his favorite heroes and tries to save the day. Things go really wrong—which leads Ben to a secret school where kids learn to control their superpowers.

Since it sounded similar to other books she loves (the NERDS series from Michael Buckley, for one), I was pretty confident she would devour this one—but even I was surprised when I woke up the next morning and asked her how it was. She had read the entire book!

Here’s what she had to say about it.