What would you do if a supervillain entered your life and ruined everything, only to prove a point? You would definitely want to call a superhero or two to save the day, and that’s exactly what Ben and Holly did in Heroes to the Rescue!

The two popular animated characters from Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom animated series turn superheroes in this adventure that proves beneficial for their folks, be it the fairies or the elves. If you don’t know who these two characters are, you might be living in a different world because kids love the magic-wielding Princess Holly and the smart Ben the Elf, who are also best friends.

The adventure kicks off with Ben pretending to be Elf-Man, a superhero who wears a superhero costume, prompting his other friends to do the same. Holly becomes Fairy Girl, Jake turns into Captain Crazy and Barnaby chooses to become the Strongest Boy in the world. However, when Strawberry can’t become a superhero, she decides to turn evil and become Strawberry Ice Queen, whose aim is to take over the world.

Of course, she couldn’t take over the world, but managed to freeze the Little Kingdom which didn’t seem to impress the Wise Old Elf and Nanny Plum, adults who usually look after the young people. It was only after they saw the Elf Man’s signal they decided to approach the superhero duo to save them from freezing to death. Both Elf-Man and Fairy Girl then asked Strawberry Ice Queen to stop the game, which she promptly did because she wasn’t enjoying it.

The all-colour book features images from one of the episodes from the animated series and features most of the main characters. It makes the readers understand that imagination has no boundaries and one can imagine anything as long as it doesn’t disturb others. Strawberry Ice Queen took her imagination too far which is why her nemesis were asked to intervene.

The book isn’t just a reader’s delight, but also offers new words to learn; they are all marked in bold so that you can identify them easily and then learn their meanings and pronunciations from a dictionary. It also tells you that you don’t need to have superpowers to save the day, but you just need the will to succeed, which is exactly how Ben and Holly managed to save their Little Kingdom, without letting anyone know their secret identities.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 22nd, 2024