Bullies spur a lad and two new
mates to decorate up as secret superheroes on this trilogy opener from Norway.
Inspired by the spectral determine of
his just-deceased grandpa, Rusty units out for payback after three
punks—recognized all through as “Anton, Ruben, and the minister’s son”—wreck the
clubhouse he and his pal Jack have laboriously constructed from scrap. As “Brown,”
wearing a brown cape and masks, he sneaks out into the evening to slap brown
paint on Ruben’s bicycle. Shortly after Rusty tells Jack in regards to the feat,
one other masked marauder, “Black,” repaints Anton’s bike. Joined by a 3rd
confidante, styling herself “Blue, or the Blue Avenger,” the trio units out on
yet one more nocturnal mission…solely to find that a lot of the stash of blue
paint has disappeared. Nonetheless, there’s sufficient to repaint the bikes of all three
foes blue. The following day Rusty, overcome by guilt, is on the verge of
confessing…when he learns that his nemeses at the moment are in deep doo-doo for a number of
acts of mischief, notably splashing the native church’s spire with blue “impolite
phrases.” Off the hook! Small, fine-lined ink drawings with coloration highlights on
practically each web page provide this tongue-in-cheek escapade with evocative vignettes
depicting Rusty’s flights of fancy, quizzical-looking mother and father and different grown-ups,
and masked prowlers in selfmade outfits. The forged defaults to white.
Chucklebait for Wimpy Child followers. (Fiction.
9-11)
