Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero by Michell Plested
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero is about an adorable young boy in a small town who wants to be a superhero. Had I stayed in Dayton, Iowa longer as a boy, this very well could have been my story. So, it was cool seeing the kinds of adventures and problems Mik tried to solve in his local environment. The strongest quality this book has going for it is that you really learn to love this little guy. After the first few chapters, I decided to start a new habit by reading this book to my wife. She’s the ultimate cutie in my eye, and I knew she’d enjoy the cute moments in this little guy’s story. If only I could express the joy I had hearing her “Awww”‘s, her giggles, and even a few “ew!”‘s from the cow pie scenes (yes, Michell uses cow pies and other barnyard hazards for comedic relief). I had my own “aww” moments with Mik’s relationship with his puppy.
The stories are engaging, fun, and satisfying in their episodic nature. I recommend reading this book to a loved one, and enjoying how each chapter is its own story within the story of Mik becoming a superhero with a golden heart.
I only had a few minor hangups with this story. A couple of the chapters had conflict that required miscommunication, and so those were a little frustrating to endure. My wife and I were both pleading for Mik to just tell somebody, or in one case, people just didn’t believe him. Stuff like that happens to kids, so it’s understandable, but still a little frustrating. Another minor beef is the combination of Mik’s dishonesty and his parents seeming naivety to his schemes in order for him to do many of his adventures. Michell addresses the dishonesty part, so it’s not like he’s advocating children lie to their parents, and in a way it shows one of Mik’s few flaws that he learns from. This is important though because Mik has so many qualities, to portray him as perfect would have been unreal. As for the parents, there were times when I wondered how they could not know what he was up to, and were a little too easy on him. I’m not a parent though, so I have little room to talk.
All in all, I think this is a fun book to read to kids or adults with young, adventurous hearts.
Congrats to Michell on his sale of Mik Murdoch’s sequel to 5 Rivers Publishing!
Other fun stories by Michell Plested (host of Get Published podcast)
Galaxy Billies – Audiobook available on Podiobooks.com & iTunes
GalaxyBillies is the story of five humans from the Appalachian Mountains who are abducted by a semi-sentient starship. But what exactly is a semi-sentient starship? In this case, the starship is named Grokmar and the semi-sentient means that he needs an intelligent crew in order to function properly.
It just goes to show how far gone the ship was to select the crew it did.
Boy Scouts of the Apocalypse Audiobook and ebook available as part of Action Pack Podcast
A Boy Scout troop leaves their survival shelter camp to find that the world has changed. They and their leaders must quickly learn how to deal with the zombie threat while they try to find their families and friends and maybe save the world along the way.
