Steve L. McEvil’s cover and description immediately grabbed my interest and the anticipation was not unwarranted. Author and illustrator, Lucas Turnbloom is quite the talented guy, giving us plenty to love about this book. He starts by giving us excellent characters, including the main character, Steve L. McEvil, who just wants so badly to be bad but often struggles to make that happen, his hilarious villain of a grandfather, and a few friends from school who add to the laughter, to name a few. He also gives us wonderful illustrations that are expressive and funny. Reluctant readers and graphic novel fans will love this book. With its excellent illustrations and funny storyline, this book will be loved by many readers.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy Provided by Random House Children’s.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: Several (16) brief incidents including character imagining a robot tossing a person; character zapping another with a toy; reference to the end of the world; verbal threats; reference to a robot being a killer; reference to melting off a face; kids falling, no injury mentioned; character scratched by a cat; a few incidents of a character accidentally knocking another over, no injury; character getting thrown by a robot; characters fighting a robot; character zaps a squirrel, leaving it charred; reference to cats peeing on things.

Sex/Nudity: Few (3) incidents including young male character having a crush on young female character. A few pictures showing pants falling down on the backside of boys (crack shown).

Mature Subject Matter:

Crude humor; reference to robbing a bank; many incidents referencing bodily functions; bullying.

Alcohol/Drug use:

None