At first, I thought Super Spaghetti was going to be about a picky eater. Nope. Then thought that it might be a “Big Anthony” in Strega Nona type of story. Nope. Then I said, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? as our main character, Fred, gets engulfed in spaghetti and turns into a superhero.
There are too many things going on that never “meshed” for me. It needed some more sauce to the idea of a boy trying to deal with the invention of a spaghetti maker that went crazy. Fred’s mother invented a machine that makes spaghetti that does not have a “reverse” or off switch (Big Anthony vibe). So, when it goes off and never stops making spaghetti, Fred gets wrapped up in his beloved spaghetti and turns into a superhero. Before this he was “Nope not me. I can’t help the fire truck or the cat in the tree.” Um…okay, how does that work? Was the spaghetti radioactive? Nope. Was it from space? Nope. It is just spaghetti. The ending felt forced and not satisfying. It is the “sure Super Spaghetti is great but regular Fred is okay too,” nature that has been overdone and not overly original that sealed my “sorry, this is not for me” feeling about the text.
I am not sure what Rebecca Donnelly’s goal was for the book, but it was not a “laugh out loud” read for me. Except the flying shoes fueled by stinky socks (which has potential) nothing interested me. Not even Bonnie Lui’s illustrations. They are neatly done, but I felt they were a bit sloppy. There was no spice to them. Sure, the colors are bold, but the details did not stand out for me. Overall, I should have picked something else for my reading feast. Best for ages 4 to 7.