Recently I have finished reading Joshua Dread by Lee Bacon. This book has 272 pages in it. This book was published on October 8, 2013 and recently won a book of the month award. I chose this book because it was on my summer reading list and I never got to it, so I read it. This book was not a challenge for me and was definitely below my level but I read it anyways. This was the 27th book that I have read this year and although I was not able to complete the 40 book challenge I feel I still did a lot of reading this year and definitely increased the pace at which I read while being able to understand a book that is above my level.

Joshua Dread by Lee Bacon is a book filled with action, laughter, mystery, and unlikely friendships. Joshua and Sophie are two kids who are science partners that find out they both have super powers(gyfts).  Joshua’s power is called spontaneous combustion meaning he can blow things up.  Joshua’s parents are the most feared villains in Sheepsdale but nobody knows they are Joshua’s parents.  Sophie has super strength.  She has no mom and her dad is a mysterious man who nobody knows his true identity.  In order to build a good friendship both Sophie and Joshua must trust each other with their secrets. One afternoon while at school Sophie tells Joshua“’ I know about your Gyft (90). ”’ Sophie is referring to Joshua’s superpower. She has figured out his secret because she saw him reading the book for Gyfted children. Sophie further tells Joshua that  ‘“ [Her] dad is Captain Justice (97), the greatest enemy of Joshua’s supervillain parents. Joshua and Sophie need to keep each other’s secrets in order to keep their friendship. It will be very hard for Joshua not to tell his parents about Sophie’s dad because Joshua is devoted to his parents.

This book does not remind me of anything because I usually do not read many mystery books or books about superheroes. I like how the author made Sophie figure out about Joshua’s secret because it makes it even more interesting that he didn’t even tell her and she figured out. This could have been a problem for Joshua because he really did not know who she was until now and most likely would have not told her his secret. Even though I like how Sophie found out  about his power I do not like how it was done because it was too easy for her and she did not have to do any extra work to figure out his secret. My favorite part is on the first page “Our class got out of sixth period early the day my parents tried to ood the earth. Weather forecasts predicted massive hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, typhoons, monsoons, mud slides, and heavy winds.” This is my favorite part because it shows comedy in the first sentence and it shows how his parents lives affect his own. I would rate this book a 7 of 10 only because I would not normally read this type of book.