Another beginning reader playing off a popular character rather than focusing on storytelling, this is possibly my least favorite of the superhero books we have recently purchased for our daughters. The story is an origin tale for Silver Banshee, describing how she came to possess her powers, and her attack against Lex Luthor and Superman in an attempt to retrieve a powerful book for the underworld witch who made her. Superman of course defeats her, and she is banished back to the underworld while Lex vows revenge on Superman for hiding the book away from all evil.

As with other children's books based on comic characters, the writing is mediocre, with convenient plot devices and overly dramatic phrasing that makes me laugh as I read it aloud to my girls. The reason I dislike this particular book is the back story for the Silver Banshee. It's dark, and feels inappropriate for young children. On the other hand, my girls don't seem to notice, and they really like reading about Superman. That's the reason I give this book two stars at all, along with the fact that the quality of the story itself is about on par with similar beginning reader books. I find them lacking, but my daughters love them. We kept the book, and I still read it to them, although I edit the beginning about the Silver Banshee dying and being sent to the Underworld, where she is transformed into her spectral figure by an evil crone. I try to balance my love of quality books for kids with my daughters' interests and freedom to choose stories they prefer. This book falls on the latter end of that spectrum. ( )