Batman #02 Copycat Crime: Scholastic Reader Level 3

Santa brought this one this year and is it the hit in our house! We particularly love the comic drawing of Batman in this series - the best body builder in the world fails to compare with the physique of this Batman! The Riddler gets the blame for a crime he didn't commit in this feature, and they let him out of Arkum Assylum to help them find the boy who has been kidnapped. However, the Riddler does escape and eventually does kidnap the missing boy. But, Batman is at his best with the dry wit and the master science mind that he has, and figures out the clues the Riddler leaves behind. Great, great story and a wonderful way to not only get your child to read, but to realize how important math and science are - especially to Batman! Highly recommend!

Please note: this is NOT a graphic novel! This is an early reader (Scholastic Level 3) with chapters and regular printed page words. The illustrations appear to be from comic books and include dialog bubbles and storyline trailers, but don't pick this up expecting a comic book. My son, a huge Batman fan, loves this book and other books of this series. ("The Copycat Crime" is the second in the series, but I have not yet encountered anything that would require the books to be read in sequence.) This villain in this book is The Riddler, who seems to have kidnapped a boy despite being in prison. The story is simple to fit it into 39 pages (the 40th page is devoted to vocabulary words), but quite well done and genuinely interesting despite its Easy Reader status. The best compliment my son has given it is, "I really like this book even though it's supposed to be good for me!"