Fourth grader, Jo Schmo, a superhero in a red cape with her dog, Raymond, are out and about once again to catch bad guys in this their fourth tongue-in-cheek adventure.

Dr. Dastardly and Numb Skull are escaping from prison using exploding macaroni and the elastic they’ve taken from the other prisoners’ underwear while working in the prison laundry. Along comes time-traveling pirate Captain Pinkbeard and his crew up to no good. Pinkbeard just happens to be drinking pink lemonade at the same place as Dr. Dastardly and Numb Skull. They join forces against Jo Schmo. The best way to capture a superhero is to take away what the superhero loves most, in this case, Jo’s dog Raymond and the three boys Jo’s fond of at school: Kevin, Mitch, and David. So,  they catch Raymond by having Pinkbeard dress up in a giant bacon suit (scented with bacon) to lure him out of the house in the middle of the night. Afterwards, Dr. Dastardly, Numb Skull and Pinkbeard kidnap the three boys and hold them hostage on Pinkbeard’s ship. “Mwah-ha-ha” (p. 76). The fight is on when Jo Schmo comes to rescue them all from the pirate ship. Raymond’s excessive amount of dog drool helps immensely in this fight as it causes pirates to slip right off of their ship and into San Francisco Bay. Good superheroes triumph over evil,  then the Coast Guard thanks Jo Schmo, and takes the pirates, Dr. Dastardly, Numb Skull and Pinkbeard away.

Oh, and did I mention that somewhere around chapter 6, Jo Schmo learns how to become invisible using the vague instructions from the Superhero Instruction Manual her Grandpa Joe keeps for her.

The illustrations by Frank W. Dormer are kid-like, similar in ways to Harold and George’s comic book creations in the Captain Underpant’s series. There at least a dozen full page and another dozen half page illustrations throughout the book.

One minor proofreading problem: the Contents page lists two chapter 18s, instead of one chapter 18 and one chapter 19.