This is one my 4 year old read to me and then I read back to him. Most kids love anything to do with super heroes, and this is one he picked for himself from the club library. (Well, as one of the voluntary librarians, I did leave a set on display because I knew he - and other kids - would be tempted to read them.)

This is a very simplified version of Spider-Man's story (more of a bio than a story) for early readers, in the DK series. It is 32 pages in all, with each page being one or two sentences in large text, accompanied by a large comic-book style illustration.

The text was well-aimed with age-appropriate vocabulary; fairly simple, but with some harder words, like 'radioactive' and 'exhibition'. There were also, scattered through the book, 8 illustrated 'dictionary boxes' (with words like 'web' and 'rooftops') that I found we didn't need. These appear again on the back page.

Unfortunately, as my child pointed out, Peter Parker looked different in almost every illustration, which I couldn't work out a rationale for.

3.5 stars ( )