Scott is sitting on the curb as he has finished unpacking his boxes and arranging his bedroom. He starts to scold his pencil and hits the pad of paper so hard with his pencil, it bounced and fell into the storm drain. Two guys Barry an Joel meet Scott. They find out that they are in going to be in the same grade at school. Barry picks up Scott’s pad of paper and flips the pages. He says o Scott you’re good. Do you draw comics? When he sees them, he gets excited and Joel goes to look at them too. The guys become excited as they love comic books. When they find Scott has writer’s block, they say hat they will help him overcome it. Scott gets a visitor in his bedroom window that leaves him a old pen. He likes it but wonders why the pen was left. He takes it with him to school. In art class at school with Barry and Joel present, he starts drawing them as superheroes including a gal name Prudence as well as the school’s alpaca named Bruce for them to keep safe. The art teacher tells him that the pen will make the drawings real. How does he know? What will happen? Scott draws Joel’s smelly sock as the arch enemy. Is that a smart thing to do?

The author has written a funny story that made me laugh. It’s written for middle grade school kids. I enjoyed the unexpected experiences the guys had keeping Bruce safe. It’s fun to read.

I am reviewing this wonderful story of Scot and his magic pen. I was carried away with his drawings of magic characters and whisking his friends along with him into the world of children and comic fantasy. This book will be enjoyed by many children who love to be taken away to another world!

I am giving a 4 star rating. Such fun!

I WANT TO THANK NERGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED COPY OF THIS BOOK

‘Super Problems’ is a fiction book aimed at middle grade readers and for anyone who enjoys a fun story.

This is the story of a boy called Scott who has the ability to draw comics really well. He just moved to a small town name Circleburg and is having a hard time adapting to the situation, as he is missing his old home and friends. Soon he will meet new friends and have an adventure like no other with the help of a magic pen.

The story is packed with adventure and funny characters; the protagonists are young students who become superheroes with their own personalized superpowers. There is also Bruce, an obnoxious Alpaca which funnily enough was my favourite character as I found its personality hilarious. The Villain of the story is the ‘Stinky Sock’ and his sinister sock army. When I started the book I assumed this was a character called Stinky Sock but turned out to be an actual talking evil sock.

This is a book which will entertain young readers with a new superhero adventure. The story can be relatable to children as they dream of becoming superheroes and protecting someone or something. Friendship is a key theme in the story and how friends have to work together to achieve their goals.

This book was an absolute delight! sixth-grader Scott loves drawing comic books. The only problem is that since he and his parents moved to a new town, Scott has writer's block! Then a mysterious crow drops a golden pen at his window and things take a really weird turn. This isn't just any pen, it's a magic pen! And when Scott draws himself and his three new friends as superheroes battling their arch-nemeses The Stinky Sock, his drawings come to life! Can Scott and his friends use their new superpower to defeat The Stinky Sock? I loved everything about this. The characters felt authentic, and choosing a stinky sock to be a supervillain sounds exactly like something a sixth-grade boy would do. Scott's frustration about being moved to a new neighborhood and taken away from his old friends also makes total sense and felt really genuine. I really think kids will love this out of the box superhero story.

In this prequel to Monster Problems, readers dive into the story of how Blue Hood, or Prudence, learned about the magic pen. When Scott draws him and a few of his friends as superheroes with his new pen, he makes the biggest mistake of his middle school career. That is because he is using a magic pen, which makes everything he draws real! Before they learn how to use their abilities, these newly minted superheroes have to fight the villain Stinky Sock and figure out how to keep their school's alpaca safe. This was a fun prequel to learn a little bit more about Blue Hood and why she knew about the pen in Monster Problem. While this was aimed at learning more about Blue Hood, I felt like I learned more about the actions and motivations of the three boys in the story. I would have preferred for Blue Hood to be more of a secondary character, like the original book, or to have made her a more prominent main character. However, I do believe that this book maintained the same type of wacky adventure that the first book had, while also introducing new abilities for the magic pen. I particularly enjoyed the evil villain Stinky Sock and the disappearance of socks all over town! If you have readers interested in superheroes and would love to find out what happens when middle schoolers get turned into them, this is the perfect book!