Slugboy Saves the World

by Mark A. Smith

Thanks to an unfortunately tasty-looking radioactive garden slug, eleven-year-old Murdo McLeod is now the world's worst superhero. His two powers are pretty unique: the first is sliding up walls. Quite slowly. The second is secreting slippery slime from his skin. (Yes, just as disgusting as it sounds.) It's a world where superhero competition is fierce, and Slugboy is so underrated he doesn't even make the list when an evil mastermind devises a plan to capture all the other superheroes. Now, Slugboy has to use his not-so-super and oh-so-gross abilities to free the other superheroes and save the world. Let's hope he doesn't slip up. Winner of the Kelpies Prize.

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2017

Reviews

[Christina Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad to have finally read this and looking forward to sharing this with my class. (Thank you to the author for my review copy and apologies for taking so long to actually get around to reading it!).
The story follows Murdo, a Scottish schoolboy who has developed superpowers after eating a slug...namely the powers to excrete slime and slide (slowly) along walls. Determined to join the ranks of famous Scottish superheroes, such as Psychic Sally, Captain Scotland and Aqua Lass, he sets out to save the world from some of the most terrifying super-villains, such as the Tartan Terror and Brodie Brainwave. The only problem is hat being a superhero is a lot more difficult than it looks, especially when your superhero alter-ego is Slugboy and you have to use public transport to get to the scenes of crimes. Murdo meets various big personalities throughout his adventures, grappling with his dream to become a superhero and the unfortunate reality that he doesn't seem to be very good at it...
This is a fun, fast-paced adventure which I could see being a big hit with readers aged 7+, especially with the addition of the superheroes and villains top trumps game.
3.5 stars.

[Claire Milne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my son after he bought a signed copy from the author at school following a talk. I liked the reference to local places and the fact the story features an unlikely superhero in the form of Slugboy. My son could have read it himself and to be honest I would have been happy to let him, however it is nice to have time together reading time and he loved it. He particularly like the superhero version of Top Trumps and enjoyed guessing what was going to happen next.

[Kirsten Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going straight out on my bookshelf in school.
A superhero who lives in Scotland - a definite winner with many of my pupils!