Eugene McGillicudy (aka Captain Awesome) and his best friend, Charlie Thomas Jones (who doubles as Nacho Cheese Man), return for a goosepimply adventure just right for long autumn nights and Halloween.
Their town, Sunnyview, goes all out as the holiday approaches; neighbors cover their houses in fake spider webs and place Frankensteins in porch rocking chairs. As the book opens, the buddies tour the neighborhood on "monster patrol!" Together with their pet hamster, Turbo, they make up the Sunnyview Superhero Squad, and they're on the lookout for real monsters who could sabotage their Halloween fun. They spy an abandoned three-story house, and O'Connor cleverly renders how it would appear to a passerby, versus (with a page turn) how it looks to the Superhero Squad, with windows that look like eyes, and a door that resembles "a crooked mouth laughing at them." Eugene enters the house in the dark of night--in a nightmare--then decides he and Charlie should investigate it together. Little do they know that someone has overheard their plans.
Kirby's sound effects ("Creak!" "Groan!" "Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!") coupled with O'Connor's (the Olympians series) generous use of jet-black backdrops add to the scare factor, but always with enough humor to keep independent readers from abandoning the story. A ghostly presence and a mysterious hero help the friends face their fears. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness