Poor ten-year-old Lili Gray! In Lili Gray and the World’s Most Embarrassing Superpower, Lili’s mother is dead. Her stepmother, Bella, is pregnant and constantly plotting against her. Now, Lili’s Dad has disappeared without even saying goodbye. Oh, and she keeps blowing holes in her pants, chairs, and even her closet walls. It seems her “superpower” is the power of self-propulsion by the most awkward method possible. Her best friend and brilliant junior scientist, Ale, is doing experiments that will hone her powers. But will it come too late to save her Dad?
Sometimes I like to read new elementary school mysteries despite being decades, and even more decades if I’m honest, after my own elementary school years. It brings me right back to my love of Encyclopedia Brown and my ongoing love of a good mystery.
Lili Gray and the World’s Most Embarrassing Superpower is the perfect book to inspire that love of mysteries in your own child. Lili is a fiery heroine. Ale is a genius friend who genuinely wants to help (and shows that being a nerd is okay and even useful). Do children really get to run around town by themselves at ten? Probably not but a young reader can always dream. Besides, flatulence is always funny even to this twenty years away from elderly adult (btw, elderly is always twenty years away once you hit forty). 5 stars to this cute, funny and enchanting mystery for young readers!
Thanks to Birte Steffan and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.