Harley Quinn at Super Hero High

DC Super Hero Girls #5

by Lisa Yee, Random House (Illustrator)

Harley Quinn investigates a high-tech carnival in this action-packed new DC Super Hero Girl novel!

Funny girl Harley Quinn loves fighting crime with her classmates like Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl, but she always does it her with own madcap style–and a big mallet! It’s no surprise that Harley can’t resist getting involved in a dance competition and organizing an outrageous battle of the bands. But when a high-tech carnival comes to town, Harley knows that things aren’t what they seem and that only she can get to the bottom of the mystery–and deliver a great punch line while doing it!

Genres: Superheroes, Comics, Childrens, Dc Comics, Audiobook, Middle Grade, Young Adult

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2018

About the author

Lisa Yee has written over 20 novels. Her most recent book, Maizy Chen's Last Chance, is about a fifth-generation Chinese American girl, and is a National Book Award Finalist, Newbery Honor, and the Asian Pacific American Children's Literature Award winner.

Lisa's debut novel, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, won the prestigious Sid Fleischman Humor Award. Other books include Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, Absolutely Maybe, and a series about a 4th grader, Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) and Bobby the Brave (Sometimes), illustrated by Dan Santat.

Lisa is also the author of several American Girl books and the DC Super Hero Girls series. A Thurber House Children’s Writer-in-Residence, Lisa's books have been named a NPR Best Summer Read, Sports Illustrated Kids Hot Summer Read, and USA Today Critics’ Top Pick.

Lisa lives In Western Massachusetts, but spends a lot of time in Los Angeles, especially when it's cold. Her next book, an awkward and hilarious mystery, is called The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum, and is illustrated by Dan Santat.

You can visit Lisa at www.lisayee.com.

Reviews

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, this was just perfection! Then again Harley is one of my favourite villains. :)

Ever since I heard that the Super Hero High would continue, with a new MC every book, I was hoping that one day it would mean Harley Quinn would get the chance to shine in the spotlight (more than she normally does). Imagine my happiness when I saw that this book would come out! Yay! Harley Quinn.

This time Harley is up to her usual jinks, but also some new ones! This girl's mind is bubbling with ideas and of course, it is Harley, she just can't wait to get to planning and starting them! In this one we have her go for a dance competition and a battle of the bands. I have to say I loved both the ideas, but I hated what Harley did at the end of the dance competition. No Harley, no. I get that you can't choose, but you have to! But she did her best, and she held out longer than I had expected. :P

We also see her trick several of her friends, make a ton of videos of everything (and also not, as she gets in a bit of trouble), try to do homework (but fail epically) but also see another side to her. We see that her life isn't always the happiest but that she just tries to be as happy as she can. I am happy that the author also showed this side. Because Harley isn't just a happy happy girl, she also has her fair share of problems and things she doesn't understand (like friendship).

Of course this book wouldn't be about superheroes without some action and battles and a villain! Yep, we have a new villain and it is a mad one (madder than they are normally). I loved his plan though, that is just brilliant. But I also loved the battles and the chaos that ensued. Harley also shows that she knows how to kick butt and she does so splendidly in this book. I was cheering for her and hoping she wouldn't make a mistake.

I am also happy to see all the other supers and villains, those in school, but also those visiting during the competitions.

I still think it is a bit silly that the one who is MC also gets that at the end. At first it was pretty nice, but by now I just don't look forward to it any more. I get that they can't just not give that to the MC, but still.. it would be nice if there was a little twist!

I could probably talk some more about this book, but I don't want to make this review too long! So I will just end with that I would recommend this book to everyone, it is such a fun one to read. I just adore Harley! <3

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[V. Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. For being a novel, this was VERY episodic, as in it felt like four episodes of a cartoon. Which isn't a bad thing, obviously, and might even be the case -- I haven't watched the associated show, so I'm unsure whether this is a direct novelization. But it did make the pacing feel disjointed.

[Lindy Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

I HATED this book I barley got threw the first chapter it was so BORING💔👎👎👎👎

[Robert Reiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter thought it was slow in the beginning but she loved the second half. (And I agree)

[Christine Lucia Asha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second of the series my son read and he said this one was way better than Wonder Woman.

[Aeicha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things at Super Hero High are about to get zany thanks to the one-of-a-kind Harley Quinn! The mallet and video camera wielding Harley has always had her own style and an infectious flair for drama...so it's no surprise that, in order to boost ratings for web show, she organizes a less than organized dance competition and battle of the bands. And when a famous, crazy carnival comes to town Harley just has to capture it all and be the lovable center of attention. But things at the carnival aren't all they appear and something or someone may have their sinister sights set on Harley Quinn...but unpredictable, class clown Harley isn't scared of a little trouble, especially with her super friends by her side!

Lisa Yee returns to her DC Super Hero Girls middle-grade series with book five, Harley Quinn at Super Hero High, and just like books one through four, this installment is full of super fun, super laughs, and super heroes of all kinds!

I'm a huge fan of Lisa Yee's version of a young Harley Quinn, so I was very excited that this book focused on this clever and unique character, and Yee did not disappoint. Like Harley herself, Harley Quinn at Super Hero High feels a little more fast-paced and rambunctious than previous books, which just adds to the fun of really getting to know Harley. And readers really do get to know Harley well throughout the book and see a more complex, relatable, and vulnerable side to her. And of course, just like Harley, Harley Quinn at Super Hero High is bursting with amusing antics, laugh-out-loud humor, unforgettable pranks, and non-stop adventure and thrills.

I always love returning to these books because Super Hero High makes for such an exciting and immersive setting, with its in-depth and enthralling world of Super Heroes and Villains. From beloved comic book characters to intriguing classes, cool gadgets and gizmos, and limitless possibilities for adventures and mayhem, this school has it all!

And of course, the thing I love best about this series is its celebration of female empowerment. From Wonder Woman to Supergirl, Katana, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Miss Martian, Thunder and Lightning, and more, these books are full of strong, capable, diverse, and smart girls who save the day. Plus, Yee does a great job of creating and fostering healthy, loyal, and supportive female friendships amongst the Super Heroes.

Harley Quinn at Super Hero High, with its charismatic heroine; amusing twists; and exciting storytelling is another super addition to a fun and fantastic series!

[Mrs. Hahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harley Quinn, desiring more viewers for her Harley's Quinntessentials channel, decides to finish holding a battle of the bands contest at a Krazy Karnival, which is hosted by a villain.

This volume of the series was all over the place. Many of the characters get a name and a power description, but not much more than that. I enjoyed that Harley was an extremely talented gymnast, and that she worked with Batgirl and Bumblebee to turn the tables on the antagonist, but the book took WAY too long to get to the meat of the story in terms of the rising action / trying to get to the central conflict.

I know that this is aimed at more of the elementary crowd, so the language was a bit simple, but the plotting could have been way tighter and the characterization of several characters could have been much deeper. I guess the assumption is that everyone reading knows who all of these characters are... but that leaves new readers in the lurch without enough background to care. The beginning focused too much on Katana, and the ending shifted to Bumblebee's storyline (which is super common in comic books!), but the pacing of all of it was just... off.

That said, I would love to get a book featuring Miss Martian. She got a lot of time in the book, but not enough depth to her character... and yet there's definitely something there for further exploration.

[Zellian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been pushing myself to venture through comics and read or watch more of the characters and series that I enjoy, so I picked this one up.

In the book Harley makes a few references of how busy she and her thoughts are and how no one would be able to either keep up or understand her, which is actually a great way to describe this book.
There were many situations that Harley and the other Supers seemed to jump through - Harley playing a joke, then the Dance-O-Rama to the Battle of the Bands (BOB!) to the Krazy Karnivool - it was A LOT to take in, spread about 3 chapters each give or take. I wonder of the younger readers feel as confused as I, at 28 years old, was trying to grasp what actually was happening. It didn't seem fleshed out, didn't make you feel invested into that situation before you were off on another.

Throughout the book Harley is shown as the "Class Clown" whether shown in her actions or by other characters mentioning it, I felt like she never truly outgrew this or developed the "inner-crisis" that she seemed to have. Being so involved with her Quinntisentials online show, planning all these big events she started to noticed how other people viewed her - as the clown of the school which she wasn't sure if she liked - as well as noticing that she didn't really spend that much time with friends. Even if it came across as she was actually trying to work on it, I would have felt like they were trying to develop her but she just ran off to deal with the next situation.

This is the first book I've tried in the Super Hero High series, so I can't say that they're all like this but I would still be willing to try another before I say whether I would bother with the series or not.

[Travis Berketa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I'm not sure what to make of this book. It was written in a way that made me feel like I was in Harley's mind... all over the place! I read this with my 6-year-old and 4-year-old daughters and they were always trying to clarify what was happening; whilst in previous books, the 6-year-old could follow the story and the 4-year-old had an idea of what was happening.

Anyway, in Harley Quinn in Super Hero High, we are taken back to the end of Katana in Super Hero High to where we were left with Harley playing a joke on her friends via video-camera, only to be grabbed by a shadowy figure. Well, as it turns out, even that is just a joke. So instead of taking the reader on a journey, we are told 'no, that's not the story'; which is a tad annoying, because I didn't really feel that we went anywhere afterwards. This then led us to Harley becoming so obsessed by her Internet blog 'Harley's Quinnessentials' that she was missing out on sleep and becoming slack with her schooling. Personally, this was a different Harley to the one that has been portrayed in previous books and even in the cartoon series. Although Harley is usually overexcitable and into her filming the happenings in Super Hero High, to make her so obsessed with how many viewers she received didn't sit right with her character. However, I could accept it for the sake of the story.

So, with a fame-obsessed Harley trying to boost her viewership, we had Ms Quinn organising a Dance Contest, which apparently had almost everyone in Super Hero High joining in, along with people from other schools (supers, non-supers and villains alike) and people/beings from around the entire universe - possibly beyond; because we are forced to believe that Batgirl's technology skills can extend Wi-Fi that far and that other alien races all have Earth's Internet and understand our languages. Then to try and top that, she organised a Battle of the Bands, which involved a similar group of contestants and viewers. Until we came to the introduction of J.J. Tetch's Krazy Karnival. Now, as I am a comic book fan, I knew straight away that the heroes were going to deal with the Mad Hatter (a.k.a. Jervis Tetch), but my daughters were none the wiser.

With the introduction of the Krazy Karnival, Harley felt that she could extend her viewership by, not only getting an inside look into this carnival, but by talking to Mr Tetch in order to see if she could run the finals for the Battle of The Bands. However, as things are not always as they seem, we find the Mad Hatter using his technology skills to control the minds of all the patrons and staff at the carnival by giving them various hats. My 6-year-old and I thought it was amusing how Harley kept running off to film the next scene for Harley's Quinnessentials and never getting the hat that the Hatter wanted her to have. Mad Hatter then organised for a bubble to surround the carnival, trapping the heroes within, and sending a group called 'The Green Team' out into Metropolis on a mind-controlled rampage, stealing from various locations.

I'm not sure why, but then the author attempts try to confuse the reader by making the characters wonder whether the Mirror Master is the true villain, instead of being controlled by the Mad Hatter. It is visibly clear that Mirror Master (in a hat) is being controlled by the Mad Hatter, but Harley and the heroes are questioning which villain is in charge. Once this is sorted out and Harley has defeated the Mirror Master, she has to (again, for some reason) face the Mad Hatter alone; as he may just run if all the now hatless heroes rush in after him. I was left questioning the validity of this, considering everyone was stuck in a bubble... How would Mad Hatter escape, when we find that the only way to burst the bubble is with a lot of loud noise?

Anyway, with Mad Hatter eventually caught, along with the other criminals, the heroes need to try and get out of the bubble. Harley comes up with the idea of using the bands from her Battle of the Bands competition to all play together, making enough noise to destroy the bubble. However as that didn't work, she needed to get everyone to make as much noise as possible. I had to laugh at this one as my daughter commented: "It's like Horton Hears a Who.", which is exactly what I was thinking.

The heroes had to make noise in greater amounts. Harley went around making sure that everyone was doing their best and that their weren't any "shirkers". Then finally, Harley decided that she should make some noise, so she took out her bell (I'm not sure where she had been carrying it all this time) and whacked it with her hammer. Where Dr Suess's Whos from Whoville had a "Yopp" that broke their sound barrier, Harley had a "Clang" that broke the bubble. The comparison was quite amusing. After the bands had stopped playing and all the villains were taken away, as per each book, Harley became the Super Hero of the Month.

Due to the book being a bit all over the place, it was hard to pin down a theme running through the book. As with all Super Hero Girls stories, there is the "teamwork" element, which this book definitely had. The only other one that came through vaguely most of the time was "trusting yourself", as Harley often frowned upon or accepted her title of class clown, which at times made her question her validity as a superhero.

Overall, this book was alright. I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for in a Harley Quinn led storyline, but it didn't stand out as a great Super Hero Girls story, as it didn't seem to add anything to any character. My girls liked it because it had Harley in it and they like her, but the fact that they could not follow the story as well as they have the previous ones, demonstrates the problems readers may have with the story.

We were left with Bumblebee finding out that her parents were in trouble and she flew away. My youngest is looking forward to this book, as Bumblebee and Harley are her favourites. I'll reserve my judgement until I read it, considering that this book let me down a little.

[Phylicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never thought of Harley Quinn as a superhero. I mean, in the original comics, she was Dr. Harleen Quinzel, psychiatrist, until she went nuts by falling in love with Joker, but in this book, she is more of a bad girl than a hero.
Waller from Suicide Squad is the principal at Super Hero High.
Of course, Wonder Woman and Supergirl have to be the words of wisdom.
There are some characters I don't recognize, like Bumblebee (except in Transformers, but I highly doubt it's the same one) and Star Sapphire.
There's a school dance and carnival. The dance I thought was kind of lame and the carnival...sounded like fun, but not for something I thought those characters would be in.
Not great, but that's my opinion.

[Dilara Bulut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as I said I would in the last review from “Batgirl at Super Hero High.” And even though it wasn’t more interesting as Batgirl, it was AS interesting. It was super fun reading a book about the class clown who loves to broadcast and get an overload of fans. Her dream is to be famous and have the most fans in the world. Though there are some bad things here and there, she always stays positive and even can turn it into a joke! At the end of the book when Mad Hatter controls everybody in the “Krazy Karnival”’s minds, it is a shock how Harley Quinn saves the day! Thank you “Lisa Yee” for writing a once more successful and entertaining book😄

[Lindsey Burnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, I get that it’s a kids book about super hero’s but come on!! The writing felt like a robot had written it, the editing was practically none existent…

for example, this is a literal word for word sentence from the book: “you are are remarkably smart.”

How did that get past editing??? It feels like they phone it in and just banked on the DC name.

The story started so unbelievably slow and took a really long time to set up.

Overall, my daughter enjoyed this read aloud, but I definitely wouldn’t read it again or recommend it.

[M.L.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weird entry in the series. My daughter loved Harley's randomness and silliness. While humorous, there wasn't a lot of depth to Harley, like the author didn't know what to do with her. Other books in the series, the protag has to grow past a personal fault. Harley...Harley says at the end that she's learned that ratings for her youtube show isn't everything. Ok...? She remains a frustratingly blank slate.

[Sydney Zachary · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my cup of tea

This novel was not my cup of tea, which is sad because I’m a huge comic nerd, I love superheroes and super villains, and Harley Quinn is one of my favorite super villains. I just personally didn’t like it. I couldn’t really get into it even after I finished it. It wasn’t that good.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great addition to the DC Superhero Girls series. It's really great to get an inside view of everyone's favorite classclown and watch her save the world. Hilarious and fun, all I can say is YOWZA

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the others in the series, it does what it says on the cover. Not great literature, but the daughter loved it, and I enjoyed the inclusion of Jervis Tetch, whom I still fondly recall from the Roddy McDowell portrayal in Batman: The Animated Series.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though Quinn is one of my favorite DC characters, her story was just okay. Surprisingly, I wasn't annoyed by her accent at all. I still have no idea what her super powers are supposed to be in this universe.

[Bron · Rating 3 out of 5]

My almost 6 year old daughter chose this one for our roadtrip home after Christmas.
It was pretty long (4.5 hours I think) and tbh it did go on quite a bit at the start. The last hour and a half was more engaging, I'd definitely pick up the paperback for her to read later.

[Sarah Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was listening to this because I love the character of Harley Quinn, and I wanted to see if this book would be appropriate for a car listen with my daughter. I think it is too advanced for her age, but it was delightful and I think middle grade readers would really enjoy it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cute installment of the adventures at Super Hero High! I personally think the first three books were the best, but this one was still entertaining and any young reader would love it.

[Jmclark2gmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

really exiting and fun i think lisa yee did a really good job on the classic switching of roles with the mad hatter as the bad guy and harley quinn as the good one

[Kathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely another fun installment to the series.

[Leon]

Love how it had multiple character voices, Love a good DC story.

[The · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the book! It gives us a great chance to look at the mind of Harley Quinn!

[Pete Pardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read for me and my daughter! She loved the zaniness of Harley! Reading has really brought my daughter and I closer and her imagination is growing with every new book!

[Thu Nguyen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is boring and doesn't have a lot of action.

[Rosanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm almost 40 but could not resist reading this book featuring Harley Quinn. Love her! Such a cute little novel!

[Serafina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book I highly suggest this if you like funny hero books.

[Jamie Coudeville · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the weakest one so far. The story took too long to get started and Harley (this version, at least) is kind of an annoying lead.

[Shaunesay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and silly, Harley Quinn of course gets herself in trouble at Super Hero high in her quest for fame and ratings. While the age level was a little below what I really enjoy, YA and younger fans of the zany diva and her super hero pals will enjoy this action packed story. Though she is much different than the adult Harley Quinn we know, she is a prankster with a good heart in this one.