Super Fly: Revenge of the Roach is a young elementary gold mine

I owe Super Fly an apology. Super Fly is the title character in a (now) series of books that are just about perfect for young elementary school readers. The chapters are short, the vocabulary is approachable, the book has drawings on half of the pages and it’s packed with parent approved potty humor. However, when I first saw Super Fly I thought it was too much like Fly Guy.  With the second book from Super Fly out, Revenge of the Roach I realize now that this series is a big step up, from a reading level perspective than our first fly love.

As a parent I loved it when he wanted to read Fly Guy. Those books are very image heavy and have very simplistic sentences with four chapters that consist of three to five pages. They’re a great starter picture reading book akin to level 1 or 2 in this learning how to read stage. The only thing those books have in common is that their titular character is a fly.

In Super Fly: Revenge of the Roach things start out calm for him and his sidekick Fantastic Flea. However, before they have time to get comfortable in the dirty diaper that they call home their nemesis, Crazy Cockroach is back. This time he’s got a new plan to defeat everyone and take over the school-video games.  It’s a highly addictive video game that makes players susceptible to suggestions.

My wife handles bedtime with the kids. “Have you read this book”, she said, “The kids love it”. That book was Super Fly and they did love it. The 6 year old could read most of it himself, while the potty humor and absurdities of a fly with 6,000 times the strength of other bugs made both boys laugh.

Revenge of the Roach is a beginner’s reading book that will appeal to boys or girls-as long as they like a little potty humor. From a parent’s perspective it’s acceptable potty humor that simply takes a real world view of where bugs live. They live in dirt, sometimes have a nest in poop and all this book does is take that setting to school.

Our oldest son continued to enjoy this Super Fly book. He reads Revenge of the Roach so much I couldn’t find it to take a photo of it for this review. If that’s the worst part of having a child who is an eager reader we’ll take it and continue having books where the lead characters live in dirty diapers as long as needed.  For our 6 year old it’s his favorite character right now. The reading is a step below Captain Underpants, but is a kindred soul to its spirit and sense of humor.