The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale

My husband and I have been trying to keep up with all the Marvel superhero movies that have been coming out over the past several years, but apparently, there was another Marvel superhero that I hadn't yet heard of: Squirrel Girl.

Doreen Green (a.k.a. Squirrel Girl) is a teenage girl who has just moved with her family to a new city. She's doing what any teenager would do when moving to a new school in a new city, and that is trying to make friends. But she's not a normal teenager. She has a big, bushy tail like a squirrel that she keeps tucked in her pants, and she talks to squirrels. But even trying to make friends with the squirrels in this new place is hard.

As Doreen tries to become friends with Ana Sofia, she learns that there has been an increase in crime over the last two years and that people in the city are not like her at all. They aren't positive and optimistic, and they definitely don't talk to squirrels.

Doreen accidentally gets seen one night with her tail out when she was trying to clean up the garbage with her newly found squirrel friend that she made after saving it from an evil trap, and pretty soon all everyone at school wants to talk about is Squirrel Girl.

Doreen has always dreamed of being a superhero like the Avengers, and she takes it upon herself to take up her secret identity of Squirrel Girl and find out who is trying to kill the squirrels and why anyone would want to kill squirrels in the first place.

The narration of the story switches between Doreen's point of view, a squirrel named Tippy Toe's point of view, Ana Sofia's point of view, and then later to the villain's point of view.

Throughout the whole book, there are footnotes that are commentary from Squirrel Girl. At first, they were really strange and distracting, but they actually helped me as a reader get to know Squirrel Girl's personality a little better. And I did appreciate that they were just footnotes, and if they bothered the reader, they could just be ignored.

I thought it was pretty strange at first and wasn't really sure what I thought about it, but it ended up being a cute, fun story about a girl who is trying to discover herself, although she very much acts like a squirrel.

There are some really funny moments, some of which are when she is texting the Avengers. Her squirrel friend apparently got some of the Avengers' numbers for her so she could ask them for some advice on the villain in her town. But since she doesn't know which number belongs to which Avenger, she just starts talking to them and there are some really funny exchanges.

It was interesting to read this story to see a different aspect of the Marvel Universe and the birth of a new superhero who is quite a bit different than the others. One thing that bothered me though is that there was never any explanation in the whole book of why she has a squirrel tail or how that would even be possible, but there are some interesting facts about squirrels that can be learned by reading the book, and I was pleased that Squirrel Girl's abilities followed those of a real squirrel.

When the squirrels talk to each other, they are sometimes hard to understand, but it's fun to try to figure out what they're saying. Every once in a while, Squirrel Girl will provide a translation in the footnotes. When the squirrels are talking to Squirrel Girl, it's written as a bunch of chittering, which is then translated in the story by Squirrel Girl.

The story ends with a section with the villain that opens it up for a sequel, which upon looking it up, I found that there is one called 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious which I plan to read when I can get my hands on it. It was nice to have a change from some of the other superheroes to something a little lighter. And I think it also helps that this one is only 14 and has things to worry about like making friends, homework, and getting grounded.