The Grateful Fred

By Greg Trine and Rhode Montijo

Bad guys tremble at the sound of his name!

From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

Dear Melvin,
We need your help. Someone has been sending us threatening letters. We don't know who it is. Please come to our concert tonight, just in case.
Sincerely,
Fred of The Grateful Fred

Someone is out to get the Grateful Fred, Melvin Beederman's all-time favorite rock-and-roll band. Can he and his partner-in-uncrime, Candace, find out who it is before it's too late? Or will Joe the Okay Guy turn into Joe the Bad Guy and put an end to the Grateful Fred once and for all?

In this third installment of the Melvin Beederman series, only the narrator knows for sure!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781250104663

Greg Trine

Greg Trine is the author of the Adventures of Jo Schmo series and the Melvin Beederman, Superhero series. He lives with his family in Ventura, California. gregtrine.com.

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To Mom and Dad

—G. T.

For my brother Alex

—R. M.

1

THE SUPERHERO’S LAB

Superhero Melvin Beederman was in his tree house taking it easy. Well, sort of. At least he wasn’t chasing bad guys. The McNasty Brothers were once again in prison, and so Melvin decided it was time to invent the world’s best-tasting ice cream. After all, it was an unwritten part of the Superhero’s Code to eat snacks when they weren’t saving the world.

So ice cream it was. And not just any ice cream—pretzel-flavored ice cream. Melvin had converted his tree house, which usually served as his good guy hideout, into a superhero’s laboratory. All around him were sacks of sugar and cartons of milk.

Let’s see, Melvin said to himself, 68 cups of sugar, 111 cups of milk. That’s 179 cups in all.

Ah … math. When Melvin wasn’t saving the world or pounding on bad guys, there was always a good math problem just waiting to be solved.

He mixed up a big batch of pretzel-flavored ice cream and spooned some for his pet, Hugo. Hugo was a rat, but right now he was a guinea pig.

The rat licked his lips. He twitched his whiskers.

Squeakity-squeak squeak? Melvin asked Hugo. This either meant, How does it taste? or possibly, Does your belly button itch? Melvin had once been fluent in gerbil, but he wasn’t so sure about rat.

Squeak, the rat said. This either meant, This is the best ice cream ever, or Don’t quit your day job, mister.

No problem there. Years ago, Melvin had been plucked from an orphanage and sent to the Superhero Academy. He was now the superhero in charge of Los Angeles. With his superhero assistant, Candace Brinkwater, he kept the peace. No, he wouldn’t be giving up his day job, not as long as his town needed him.

Melvin looked around his hideout-turned-inventor’s-lab and cleaned up. He wasn’t giving up on pretzel-flavored ice cream, but he had things to do. After cleaning up, he checked his e-mail.

From: [e-mail]

To: [e-mail]

Dear Melvin,

We need your help. Someone has been sending us threatening letters. We don’t know who it is. Please come to our concert tonight, just in case.

Sincerely,

Fred of The Grateful Fred

Holy trouble-is-brewing! Melvin said. Someone is out to get The Grateful Fred. I love those guys.

Holy trouble-is-brewing, indeed! He did love them. The Grateful Fred was his all-time favorite rock-and-roll band. Melvin had to get going. The e-mail was a cry for help, and the Superhero’s Code told him what to do in such situations. Melvin knew he had to be at the concert. He had to keep the peace. And

Reviews for The Grateful Fred

[adge73 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Doesn't quite hit its mark. It's going for a sort of satirical take on the superhero genre and a light, witty flair, but it generally falls pretty flat. Stick with Chet Gecko.