Gum Girl - Tentacles of Doom by Andi Watson (Walker Books)

Every kid needs their own superhero. Even girls, who may love the luxurious dresses and tresses of Disney Princesses but now and again crave a kick-ass superhero instead.

So it's a good job we have folk like Andi Watson around to provide superheroes that are a lot less violent and a lot more child-friendly than anything you'll find nestling under DC or Marvel covers.

We absolutely loved the first volume of Gum Girl's adventures (in fact it was one of our book of the week nominations a little while ago) so we had to track down Volume II - Tentacles of Doom as quickly as possible.

Here. Gum Girl gets firmly into her stride as she deals with a dastardly octopus maths genius, a coughing spluttering and entirely evil santa and a dirt-dealing dust bunny.

It's easy to see why Gum Girl is popular - she's an ace crime fighter, she usually wades into situations and clears up nastiness where adults blindly ignore what's going on, and of course she's got a secret identity so for folk like me who grew up thrilling to the adventures of Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne independently, Gum Girl ticks all the right superhero standard boxes but also feels fresh, vibrant and full of delicious bubble-icous energy.

We'll definitely be picking up volume three without a doubt, and soon on the blog as part of our #ReadItMD13 theme we'll be taking a closer look at some of the world's best comics for younger children so stay tuned for that one.

Charlotte's best bit: Gum Girl's groovy (and sticky) gum boots

Daddy's favourite bit: The 'Santaland' story was ace, reminiscent of the debacle over the grotty santa theme park a few years back.