Cleaners, Purple Gunge and Laser Eyes

This evening, I've been reading hero ideas from Manor School in Didcot, St Edwards in Castle Donnington, Rosemellin in Cornwall, Tregolls in Cornwall, Highfield School in Ely and Bridge School in Leicester.

Here are some highlights:

Unlikely Heroes

'Jeff the cleaner is 42. He works at a school in the evening but in the day he vacuums up monsters with his vacuum cleaner. He is a man of few words, with a face as still as a statue, but he has a terrible weakness for chocolates, his only temptation.' - Enzo, Manor School.

I really like the idea of a school cleaner being a hero. School cleaners usually arrive after children have gone home and many find that their work goes unnoticed. Jeff sounds like the sort of school cleaner that goes about his job quietly. Imagine finding out that a quiet chap like that had been fighting lumipoo momps.

Having a quiet, ordinary human without any super powers, might be a welcome contrast to all the crazy monsters.

Emily G thought of a similar idea:

'Bin-Boy works as a bin-man throughout the day, cleaning up and getting to know the streets. But then, by night he turns into Bin-Boy, defeating horrible monsters by chucking garbage at them. However, Bin-Boy doesn't work alone - he works with his ever so clever sidekick, Danny Dog. If they feel they may be detected, they can pretend to be an ordinary man walking an ordinary dog.'

An anonymous writer from Rosemellin School also came up with the idea of an unexpected hero.

'She is as strong as a fierce as a lion but quiet as a mouse. It is because of this that she is such a good heroine, no one suspects her.'

Sidekicks

Congratulations to Claudio for thinking of a very original sidekick:

'Her sidekick is a walking washing machine that spins people to death. She has an electronic arm that squirts out washing fluid.'

Similes

Anonymous from Rosemellin has used a lovely variety of similes to describe the hero Rip Jaw:

'Rip Jaw has hair as black as coal, eyes as red as fire and emerald armour that glints like gold. His face is as smooth as a baby’s bum. He’s as strong as hulk. He’s as muscled as a lion. His cowboy boots are as silver as a glinting sword. He flies like a falcon.'

I thought the simile comparing cowboy boots to a glinting sword was particularly good, because it links in with the knight image that began with the armour.

Here is another paragraph containing lovely similes. It's from a different anonymous child at Rosemellin School:

'She wears a beautiful purple dress, the colour of blue bells. Her skin is as white as a daisy. She has cherry red lips and delicate, glittery wings. Her hair is golden like the sun and wavy like the sea. Her piercing blue eyes help her see at night.'

And some more similes from yet another anonymous child at Rosemellin School.

'Helpful Henry has hair as red a tomato, his mask is as blue as the sky, which makes him stand out a lot.  His teeth are as sharp as a pick axe, which helps him catch monsters. His skin is as smooth and strong as steel.'

I particularly like this imagery by Hannah from Tregolls:

'She is pretty but it looks like her cloths where shrunk then painted on by a old lady.'

It makes me imagine a heroine with very tight, very old-fashioned clothes.It's very original.

And another simile (you lot are really getting to grips with those!):

'My superhero looks like a bit like an enormous ant but he is as yellow as the sunshine.' - Josh, Bridge School.

Bogies

Helpful Henry has some interesting snot:

'Key fact - when Helpful Henry sneezes bogies don’t shoot out of his nose purple gunge comes instead!'

Strengths

Aneeqa from Bridge School came up with some interesting strengths for the hero Super Jack.

'He can control the weather with his red ring. He found the magical red ring in a park. It was flashing in the grass so he put it on his finger.'

He can communicate with any sort of animal so he can defeat the monsters with a little help from his animal friends. He was born with this power.'

We could use the second idea by pairing an hero that can talk to animals with an animal sidekick, which no other human could understand.

Weaknesses

Jasmine has given her hero, Wow Woman, an interesting weakness:

'Her weakness is an amethyst stone, if you hold it up to her face she will melt into a red puddle.' - Jasmine, Tregolls.

Highfield School came up with a very funny weakness:

'He hasn’t quite managed his laser eye skills, so occasionally he blows up something he didn’t mean to.'

Alliteration

Luke has used some lovely alliteration:

'Slither is a sneaky snake.' - Luke, Tregolls.

Showing as well as Telling

'He has such a loud voice that windows rattle and shatter, and computer screens splinter and crack.' - Highfield School.

This is a brilliant way of showing how loud a voice is.

Backstories

Faatima has created a very subtle backstory.

'Genius Gina doesn’t know how she got her powers but when she was a baby a bolt of lightning struck her!' - Faatima from Bridge School

Could it be the lightning strike that gave Genius Gina her powers? We'll never really know for sure.

Death and Violence

One or two of you sent in ideas that are a little too violent for a book written in school, for example people being burnt alive and having their jaws ripped out. Please read my post We Need to Talk About Death.

Melted Chocolate

I've just read Cody's description. Foxy's weakness is melted chocolate straight from the microwave. Excuse me, I just have to go and do something in my kitchen ...