World Book Day 2021: 4 Supertato Reviews + Easy Supertato Craft!

If you’re a booklover, you’ll know that Thursday was World Book Day. As a family of booklovers, it’s one of our favourite days of the year. It’s up there with Christmas and Pancake Day. We celebrate our love for books by scoping out the release announcements, pre-ordering our £1 books and spending the day itself all cosied up, reading to our heart’s content. It’s a lot of fun. This year, we went with a Supertato theme by reading FOUR Supertato books by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet and making our very own Supertato. So today, I’m going to be sharing mini book reviews plus an easy peasy Supertato craft!

Supertato Book Reviews

Supertato
by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet

Let’s start with the OG Supertato book. In this book, we’re introduced to the hero and villain of the series: Supertato and the Evil Pea. The Evil Pea has escaped from the freezer and is running around the supermarket, up to no good! But fear not: Supertato is here to save the day!

It’s an interesting spin on the typical good vs evil trope that kids seem to love. (Mine certainly does!) But I feel like this was the book that got the least engagement and enjoyment from my son. Still, a great introduction to the series and characters!

Supertato: Books Are Rubbish!
by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet

This was our son’s World Book Day pick for last year. All the veggies are enjoying some books – all except the evil pea of course! In fact, the Evil Pea decides to sabotage reading time. Yes, he really is THAT evil! The lights go out and the veggies have to use their unique skills (learnt from books!) to get things back to normal.

A great little picture book to show reluctant readers that books aren’t actually rubbish! We had to guess the ending as a little someone had torn out the final page… but I’m sure it was a happy one.

Supertato: Super Squad
by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet

I recently won a copy of this one in a giveaway and shared my thoughts in a previous picture book wrap-up. Basically, it follows Supertato and his veggie friends who are determined to teach the Evil Pea a lesson. But it’s not what you think! This book is about showing kindness to all – even those who can be kind of mean!

Again, it’s light-hearted and fun. It feels a lot shorter than the other books so I think it’s geared towards a slightly younger audience? But it works really well for us and keeps our 3 year old’s attention throughout. And the message is lovely so that’s a big plus!

Supertato: Bubbly Troubly
by Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Children’s UK and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

And now for the latest addition to the Supertato series! As you’d expect from the books, the Evil Pea is up to mischief AGAIN. In this one, he deliberately mixes up the bubble solutions turning bubble time into absolute chaos. The veggies need to find a solution and quick! With help from Mystic Mango, they get the job done and the Evil Pea is banished back into the freezer.

Since my son is obsessed with bubbles, this was a fun read for us all. It followed the formula well: veggies having a good time, ruined by Evil Pea and then working well as a team to solve the problem. It’s cheerful, colourful and featured some fun word play that went down well with my husband and I.

While I did enjoy the book, I’m not sure how I felt about the Mystic Mango character. It certainly felt like racial stereotyping at times. (I understand that he is a fictional vegetable but there was something there that didn’t sit right with me which let the book down a bit.) All in all, it’s a fantastic picture book that the whole family can enjoy!

Supertato: Bubbly Troubly is out now! You can buy it from Bookshop.org* and all good book retailers.

How to Make Your Own Supertato at Home

*Inspired by mumma_cornwall on Instagram*

What You’ll Need:

• A Potato
• Paper/Card/Ribbon/Tissue Paper
• Something for the eyes!
• PVA glue and glue sticks
• Scissors

Making a Supertato is a super easy craft project for little ones. It’s also a lot of fun! Here’s how we did it:

Step 1: The Belt

Using some black glittery card (you can use whatever materials you have available), we cut it into a long thin strip that could wrap around our potato. We then glued the entire length of the card before securing it around the potato.

For our belt buckle, we used a small square of plain white paper. This was coloured in yellow and red and marked with Supertato’s signature ‘S’. Once the belt was secured in place, we glued the back of the buckle and stuck it on top of the belt.

Step 2: The Eye Mask

Using an even thinner strip of the same black glittery card, we stuck this around the potato nearer the top. This was followed by two little plain paper dots with eyes drawn on in pencil.

Step 3: The Cape

For this step, we used some orange tissue paper. We glued one length and secured it onto the back of the eye mask card.

Step 4: The Smile

We could have used another piece of plain paper cut into a small crescent shape and glued that into place but instead we just drew a smile directly onto the potato. And voila – our Supertato was complete!

So there you have it: four Supertato stories reviewed and one DIY Supertato! Will you be making your own Supertato? Let me know in the comments below!