I want to like the Mia Mayhem books, but I really don't. I appreciate the much-needed representation in this book -- a Black female superhero and a superhero with prosthetic legs. And the illustrations are fun. But the storytelling is mediocre. I read this with my 1st grader and it was serviceable, but also mildly painful for me.

It seems like there is a lot of demand right now for early/transitional chapter books. This is probably because children are pushed to stop reading picture books and "graduate" to chapter books. But the quality of storytelling in some of these early chapter book series is disappointing. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I had to read [b:Isle of Misfits 1: First Class|45211637|Isle of Misfits 1 First Class|Jamie Mae|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555898684l/45211637._SX50_.jpg|62983741], [b:Recipe for Disaster|40261206|Recipe for Disaster (Didi Dodo, Future Spy #1)|Tom Angleberger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545515197l/40261206._SX50_.jpg|62543134], and [b:March of the Mini Beasts|25785556|March of the Mini Beasts|Ada Hopper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459703704l/25785556._SX50_.jpg|45636294], which were all pretty blah.

I'm not saying to keep kids away from Mia Mayhem. I read a lot of mediocre books when I was a kid and they didn't hurt me. But I hope that any parent who is stuck reading this book aloud to their child knows that there are better options out there.

In my opinion, [b:The Princess in Black|20708771|The Princess in Black (The Princess in Black, #1)|Shannon Hale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400886035l/20708771._SX50_.jpg|19108672] series is much better. [b:Dragons and Marshmallows|30316180|Dragons and Marshmallows (Zoey and Sassafras, #1)|Asia Citro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470285440l/30316180._SY75_.jpg|50804812] also better. [b:Meet Yasmin!|37865546|Meet Yasmin!|Saadia Faruqi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517017738l/37865546._SX50_.jpg|59572762] is a little younger, but better written. Or go old school and read [b:My Father's Dragon|34898|My Father's Dragon (My Father's Dragon, #1)|Ruth Stiles Gannett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438398138l/34898._SX50_.jpg|3217669]. ( )