Billy Hooten: Owlboy - Softcover

Tom E. Sniegoski has worked in the comic book field for several years. He is the author of the Fallen series, recently made into a TV movie for the ABC Family channel. He lives in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Eric Powell found true success when he launched his critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Goon. It is now hailed as one of the most original comics in the industry and boasts a diehard cult following. He lives in Tennesee.

Grade 3–6—Billy Hooten is a comic-book nerd who has been dubbed "Owlboy" by the class bully because of his last name and his big glasses. When he hears a cry for help coming from a nearby cemetery, Billy follows the voice into a crypt, where he meets Archebold, a goblin, and discovers that he is the next Owlboy, crime-fighting superhero of Monstros City, an underground world populated by every type of monster imaginable. Billy is amazed that his comic-book story is real and is not sure about being a superhero, much less donning the Owlboy costume, which doesn't fit. But after he completes a series of tests and discovers that he has some unusual powers when in Monstros City, he realizes that taking on the mantle of Owlboy is his destiny. He begins his adventures by catching the evil Slovakian Rot-toothed Hopping Monkey Demons. Sniegoski clearly knows his superhero stories and fills this book with tropes that hark back to Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. Owlboy has an Owlmobile, but there are other more imaginative touches, such as a secret hideout called the "Roost" complete with a gadget-creating troll. This lively tale should be a hit, especially with reluctant readers. A few black-and-white sketches appear throughout.—Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ
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