I'd have loved Sidekicks (Little, Brown) as a pre-teen: a comical kid's book series about the travails of Guy Martin, the fastest kid alive. (Especially would've liked it the semester my folks banned comics in the house because I'd gotten too many C's on my report card!) The creation of former comics editors Dan Danko and Tom Mason, the planned six-book series is a zippy blend of superhero takeoff and middle school comedy. It's not surprising to learn that Danko & Mason have free-lanced for Malcolm in the Middle: it's not much of a stretch to imagine Frankie Muniz's voice reading Sidekicks' first person narration.

Two books in the series have appeared to date, Sidekicks and Operation Squish. The first introduces Martin, a.k.a. Speedy (when his superhero mentor remembers his correct name), capable of reaching 92.7 mph in the first book, 102 in the second. Guy is part of an affiliation of superhero sidekicks, who spend their non-school hours at the Sidekick Super Clubhouse in the deserted lot behind the League of Big Justice, monitoring evil on hand-me-down equipment and waiting for the moment when they'll be called upon to wash their sponsor hero's car or do the dishes. In between super-chores and the occasional adventure, our thirteen-year-old hero spends his time pining away for the unattainable Prudence Cane, who (along with every other girl in his class) instead yearns for Mandrake Steel, also known as Charisma Kid.

Danko & Mason have fun messing around with superpower conventions. Aside from Speedy, the majority of the Super Sidekicks all possess powers that are decidedly pointless: Exact Change Kid, Boom Boy (he can blow himself up, but - as in the old vaudeville joke - he can only do it once), Boy-in-the-Plastic-Bubble Boy (nobody can understand what he's saying through his Giant Hamster Ball of Justice), EarLobe Lad. The only one outside of Speedy who's even marginally useful in a crisis is Spelling Beatrice: she has an arsenal of Scrabble tiles that also double as utility belt type devices. Most of the full-grown heroes aren't much better. Speedy's mentor, for example, Pumpkin Pete, has a large pumpkin head and "pumpkin powers," but nobody quite knows what that means.