Dc Super Pets Royal Rodent Rescue
Capstone Press
Picture Window Books
1st January 2011
United States
Children
Fiction
Graphic novel / Comic book / Manga: Anthropomorphic / animal stories
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Nature and animal stories
741.5
Paperback
While napping in the FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, STREAKY THE SUPER-CAT is suddenly awakened by a television news alert. The evil Siamese cat ROZZ has kidnapped Prince Zouli, a noble hamster from the village of Kardamyla. UP, UP, AND AWAY! The CAT OF STEEL is on the case and quickly tracks down the royal rodent. Unfortunately, the fearsome feline has a few tricks up his fur. When ROZZ reveals a chunk of KRYPTONITE in his collar, STREAKY must help the hamster, and save himself as well.
'm a big proponent of getting kids to read comics but their choices are slim when compared to what adults are offered in the medium. So when I heard Capstone Publishers was teaming with DC to put out DC Super-Pets I was ecstatic! Then I got to read them and was filled with joy usually reserved for 8-year-olds. Here's why... The first six books in the series were released last month and are all drawn by Eisner Award-winning artist Art Baltazar. You're probably already familiar with his work on Tiny Titans. The guy is just plain awesome and he doesn't disappoint here. In fact, he ups the cuteness quotient by a lot. There's a whole menagerie of animals for Baltazar to choose from and one is cuter than the next. I'll start off with the obvious book for me, Super Hero Splash Down starring B'dg the Green Lantern and Dex-Starr the angry Red Lantern. Written by Jane Mason, this was the first one I read because Dex is my favorite. The story follows the antics of the two at a water park, which is surprising considering cats don't like water. Well, of course that comes into play. There's a lot of horsing around but eventually a superhero team-up is called for when some Sinestro Dog Corps invade the park. You'd think The Fastest Pet on Earth would star The Flash's companion but no, actually this book is all about Wonder Woman's trusty Kanga named Jumpa. Written by J.E. Bright, the story revolves around Jumpa having to protect a special Golden tortoise from Chauncey, Cheetah's cheetah on Paradise Island. Jumpa has just as much bravery and fight in her as Wonder Woman and uses not only her power but her wits to outsmart the villain. Midway Monkey Madness is filled with familiar DC characters. Written by Sarah Hines Stephens, it stars Beppo the super-monkey, the Wonder Twins Jayna and Zan, Gleek and Gorilla Grodd. Grodd decides to cause some havoc at a local carnival and Beppo makes sure everyone gets to safety while he and the rest of the heroes figure out how to stop him. Writer Bright also took on Aquaman's giant seahorse storm in Heroes of the High Seas. He stars along with Topo the octopus, Ark the sealion plus Black Manta and his pets Misty and Sneazers. I couldn't figure out what Misty and Sneezers were at first but turns out they're manta rays! This was one of my favorites out of the bunch because a lot of players got together and each had a very specific job to overcome their problem. Pooches of Power features the two most famous super pets, Ace the Bat-Hound and Krypto the Super-Dog. Hines Stephens also writes this tale in which the dogs go up against the Penguins animal companions, the Bad News Birds. Ace and Krypto must put a stop to thievery taking place at the local sardine factory before the Penguin can escape his own justice. And Bruce Wayne/Batman makes a guest appearance to congratulate his pooch. And last but not least, because it's actually my favorite, Royal Rodent Rescue by John Sazaklis stars not one but TWO felines. Streaky the super-cat and Rozz, the evil Siamese of Catwoman. This story almost puts the villain in the starring role as Rozz decides to head off to Metropolis on her own in search of thievery while Catwoman is stealing in Gotham. Streaky must intervene with the slinky cat kidnaps and royal hamster. Yup, you heard me, a royal hamster. And the fight is not an easy one as Rozz got her paws on some Kryptonite! Each book (all around 50 pages long) includes a rundown of the characters appearing in the book, a stats page of the star, knock-knock jokes and a page with definitions of some of the tougher or more unfamiliar words that appear. The front and rear of each book also holds a mural of all the super pets we'll see in the series. And let me tell you, we've only hit the tip of the iceberg. I can't wait to see some of these other pets in action. Although the book is called DC Super-Pets, it's important to note that most, if not all of the "pets" view themselves as friends or companions of the h-- "The Nerdy Bird Blog"
Capstone Kids has released a new series of fun books geared towards early readers. The books were created in conjunction with comic book giant, DC, to bring about a new series: DC Super-Pets! They stories include characters like Super-Pet Beppo who is Superman's pet Monkey, along with many other clever characters. They have a comic book feel detailing the character and showing action words and sound effects in big and colorful ways that grab your attention. Right now your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Grade aged children can enter a "My Pet is Super Contest" where the child is asked to write an imaginary newspaper article about their Super-Pet and how he/she did something extraordinary! Entries will be judged on creativity, content, and originality! The top 50 entrants will each receive 2 free DC Super-Pets Books, one for the student and one for their school library. There will also be a first place winner who will win the prize of being drawn into a DC Super-Pets book and will receive the original illustration! The first place winner and their school will also win 5 copies each of the book! The contest ends on 2/28/11. I was able to review the first six books in this series. I think these books are fabulous! Both of my boys were instantly extremely interested in them and they held their attention while I read the story. I pointed to the words for my 4 year old to follow along and had him read me the few words he is beginning to learn as we came across them. I believe he will be able to begin reading most the words sometime next year. At 4 he is still a little bit young to read them independently. However, I think these books are great for getting young children interested in reading and eager to try it on their own. Every page has full color illustrations that really seem to pop off the page they are so bold! I absolutely love the comic book feel of the fun text popping out at you on each page. These books retail for $4.95/each and you can find them in bookstores locally as well as on Amazon . http: //www.amomstake.com/2011/02/dc-super-pets-books-contest-review.html-- "A Mom's Take Blog"
Devoted link-followers may recall a post I did for Robot 6 a few weeks ago about Picture Window Books' DC Super-Pets series of easy-reader prose books by illustrator Art Baltazar and different writers. At the time, I'd only managed to track down three of the first wave of six books (yet more are forthcoming). Well, this past week I managed to find two more of those initial six books through my library's inter-library loan program: John Sazaklis' Royal Rodent Rescue, in which Streaky the Super-Cat tries to foil Catwoman's cat Rozz's Metropolis crime spree, and J.E. Bright's Heroes of the High Seas, in which Aquaman's pals Topo, Storm and Ark stop Black Manta's pet mantas from destroying Atlantis. As a regular reader of Baltazar's Tiny Titans, in which a kitten version of Streaky regularly appears, it was neat to see a grown-up Streaky in Royal Rodent Rescue--along with a grown-up Supergirl, who is mentioned teaming up with Batgirl at one point, but is only drawn by Baltazar at the beginning. Here's what Baltazar's non-Tiny Supergirl looks like: [image] Sazaklis writes Streaky the Super-Cat a lot like a regular cat, with Streaky regularly stopping to curl up and take naps between super-acts. For example, while napping at the Fortress of Solitude, he hears an alarm signaling a break-in at an appliance store in Metropolis. He flies there to see police already on the scene, so goes into the store and takes a nap atop a TV. The villain of this piece is Rozz, a female cat who is apparently original to the book (I don't remember Catwoman having a cat by that name, anyway). Oddly/adorably, she dresses up just like her master Catwoman, making her a cat wearing a cat-suit: [image] The book suggests that Batgirl is Catwoman's archenemy, not Batman, and when she sees Batgirl and Supergirl teaming-up in Metropolis on TV, Catwoman decides that means the coast is clear for a Gotham crime spree. Rozz, on the other hand, decides to journey to Metropolis and try her paw at crime there. Her main crime, the one referred to in the title, is kidnapping the pet hamster of visiting royalty and holding it for ransom. The highlight of the book, for me anyway, was the scene where Rozz breaks into a TV station and communicates her demands to the viewing audience at home. But, because she's a cat, it's just a bunch of meowing (to everyone who isn't also a cat, like Streaky). Heroes of The High Seas was the one I was most looking forward too, as it featured my favorite of the pet-having superheroes, Aquaman. There's Topo, a Silver Age Aquaman character (who apparently functioned as a one-cephalopod band in the comics, just as he does here!), Storm, the name of Aquaman's giant sea horse from those crappy old Aquaman cartoons, and the new character Ark, a little seal, whose presence here instead of Tusky (Aquaman's walrus sidekick in the same cartoons Storm used to appear in), sort of confused me. Here's a nice image in which you can see all three super-pets, as well as Aquaman's whole court, as drawn by Baltazar: [image] Baltazar makes some very, very strange choices in his character design for some of these animals. Ark, for example, seems to have legs in almost every drawing of him, with knees and everything, giving him the appearance of a humanoid seal instead of a normal seal. And I had no idea what species the two villains, Misty and Sneezers, were supposed to be until the text revealed that they were rays. Take a look: [image] Personally, I would have guessed "ghost cats." I worry that some day some kid is going to grow up thinking manta rays look like gray ghost cats because of this book. I'm still on the lookout for the final of the first six books, Midway Monkey Madness, which features Beppo The Super-Monkey, Gleek and the Wonder Twins from Super Friends and Gorilla Grodd. And the next round looks even more awesome, wi
John Sazaklis spent part of life working in a family coffee shop, the House of Donuts. The other part, he spent drawing and writing stories. He has illustrated Spider-Man books and written Batman books for HarperCollins. He has also created toys used in MAD Magazine. Art Baltazar is a super-cartoonist machine from the heart of Chicago and the winner of two Eisner awards! He's all about the peace, love and joy. He defines cartoons and comics not only was an art style, but as a way of life. Art started his funky secret art studio in 1994 with his self published comic book "The Cray-Baby Adventures." Since then, he created other comics such as "Captain Camel & the Space Chicken," Lunar Lizard," Meteor Mite" and the famous, "Patrick the Wolf Boy" and "Tiny Titans."