He grew up in a big, funny, noisy family of seven brothers. When he was eight years old and living with his family in Zimbabwe, he began to write stories. After watching a James Bond movie, he wrote about supercool spys who drove fast cars and dated beautiful women. Now that he’s all grown up, he writes children’s books about dogs… go figure!
Kevin lives in Texas. He enjoys reading and writing (duh), golf, yoga, watching movies and playing guitar. Most of all he enjoys being with his family.
As is often the case I received this book free because the author approached me with a copy in exchange for a review. Despite that kindness I'm absolutely candid in my thoughts below.
The follows extremely standard form. Ordinary person (dog) obtains extraordinary powers and then uses those powers for good. After a period of success a perennial enemy appears that will enter into future adventures for later books. We've all seen that motif play out before.
On the positive side, the writing is light and readable and the story is simple enough that even young children won't have any trouble keeping track of what's going on. Children who have pets of their own will be especially interested since the main characters are common household breeds that they might have themselves.
To the negative, I think the story and the execution miss each other when it comes to target age range. As stories go this is suitable really only for very young children. The author says suitable for 6-12 but my 9-year-old looked at me like I was nuts when I tried to give it to her. Unfortunately though this is a chapter book with no illustrations whatsoever so the group of kids that might enjoy it will be put off by the lack of pictures. I could see this adapted well into a series of picture books or drawn out and cleaned up into a proper chapter book but as it stands it straddles the line in a rather impossible way that makes it hard for me to find an audience that will willingly consume it.
In summary, the idea isn't a new one but there's reasonable potential. I'm just not sure what the true age range is for this book given the simplicity of the story and the lack of visual aids.
Superheroes: Good. French Bulldog: Really Good. Flying French Bulldog that's a superhero: YES! PLEASE!
I downloaded this from Amazon looking for a random quick read, but it was way more than I had expected. Perfect for children I think, and even some adults might find it funny.
Spoiler alert: Some of the scenes might be a little predictable, and I never felt that SuperFang was in any real danger until the end, but I think the author made it work. It's for kids, and you get a warm feeling at the end of the novel, so I think overall it's all right. The humor really kept the pacing going as well.
SuperFang does end on a cliff hanger, so can't wait for the next installment of this series.
Amusing short piece of the French Bulldog Fang eating a golden mushroom and becoming this continues The Chosen One, gifted with powers of flying, superstrength, and ability to talk telepathically.
Not liking The Chosen One, he adopts the moniker SuperFang, complete with costume, mask, and cape(which responds to commands from his mind.
The author says Fang and Andrew, a poodle, are based on his two dogs, down to personalities.
I thought that the book was really good because the author described the story really well. I liked the ideas about friendship and how SuperFang and Andrew help each other out. Next, I want to see the if there is going to be a SuperFang2!!! SuperFang is an awesome book and you should read it!!!!!!!!!
I read a chapter a night to my son. And we both enjoyed the story! The French bulldog is adorable and entertaining as is the entire book. I highly recommend it and cannot wait for book #2!!!
A charming story for children - a superhero who is also a lovable family dog! I would give the story one more star if there were some illustrations in the book.
A 7 year old who is learning to read may get something from this book, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it unless a stubborn reading resistant child absolutely loved dogs (as once worked for me only in relation to birds). My main beef with this book is the idea that the dog gets its super powers from eating a golden mushroom. Maybe the author comes from a part of the world where golden top mushrooms aren't a thing but to me I'd be too concerned about a child finding one and thinking they'll get superhero powers from it (with a side of warm glow deep in their belly, seeing floating golden balls of light, and waking up with a case of the munchies.... yeah maybe that isn't a coincidence... ) . The rest of the story, hallucinogenic mushrooms aside, isn't amazing either and doesn't really have a huge climax to resolve. Its more of a small climax with the promise of more adventures in the next book.
My fourth grade daughter and I read this book together. We experienced a dose of humor, connection to the main character, and an enjoyable plot. The addition of illustrations would have enhanced this story to have a true early chapter book feel. The page length seemed a bit short for this genre, however, I suppose the addition of illustrations would have some effect on the number of pages. I would have enjoyed a more comprehensive synopsis on the back of the book. Overall, the story stands alone to be fun, kid-approved, and full of super-powered doggie energy.
I received a review copy of this book from Kevin Woram.
We love dogs and we love superheroes, put them together and you have a great book! My 6 and 7 year olds really enjoyed this book...they were engaged, entertained and laughed and had fun reading this book. That is pretty awesome if you ask me...4 stars
This was a fun book to read. We loved how thoughtful Fang was with others. Our favorite SuperFang 'save' was the Elephants and how appreciative the baby elephant was. It would be nice if our dogs could mindspeak!