I put Almost Super on during a particularly long and tedious data-entry afternoon, expecting to use it as background noise while I worked through a spreadsheet. Within about twenty minutes I had given up on the spreadsheet entirely and was sitting with my headphones in, laughing out loud at the description of Rafter Bailey's power to strike matches on polyester. Marion Jensen has written one of those middle-grade novels that adults find as rewarding as kids do, because the humor operates on multiple levels simultaneously.
Published in 2014 and the first in a two-book series, Almost Super introduces the Bailey family: a superhero dynasty with a generational tradition of power-granting on the twelfth birthday. Everyone in the family gets a power. No exceptions. Except that when Rafter and his brother Benny finally hit that milestone, their powers are, as the novel's title accurately signals, comically inadequate. Rafter can strike matches on polyester. Benny can turn his innie belly button into an outie. The Johnson family, the Baileys' hereditary supervillain nemeses, are presumably better served by their own power-granting process.
Where This One Lands
Jensen's main structural achievement is to use the superhero premise as a vehicle for something genuinely interesting: a story about what happens when inherited identity and personal reality fail to match up. Rafter has grown up being told that the Baileys are heroes and the Johnsons are villains, and the premise of the novel is that this binary is wrong in ways that matter. Juanita Johnson, his algebra nemesis who turns out to be one of the book's most compelling characters, becomes the catalyst for Rafter's reckoning with everything he thought he knew about his family's legacy. That thematic work is handled lightly enough that younger readers experience it as adventure rather than message, but it is there.
The humor throughout is genuinely good. Jensen has a gift for absurdist specificity, and the ongoing gag of the Bailey powers escalating in ridiculous directions carries the comedy across the full novel without running dry. Multiple readers have noted that the book reads aloud particularly well, which the audiobook format confirms.
Mike Chamberlain's narration is an excellent fit for the material. He has a warmth and ease that suits family comedy, and he handles Rafter's frustrated, mortified perspective without pitching it into full teen-complaint register. His comedic timing in the set-piece moments, particularly the scenes where Rafter attempts to deploy his match-striking ability in an actual crisis, is genuinely sharp. At six hours and three minutes, this is a self-contained listen that can work across a long car journey or broken across several sessions without losing momentum.
The HarperCollins production quality is consistent throughout, and Chamberlain's pacing suits the novel's rhythm well. This is middle-grade audiobook production done correctly: clean, well-cast, and appropriately energetic without becoming frenetic.
Things to Know Before Starting Almost Super
Almost Super is the first of a two-book series, and while it delivers a complete story arc, the ending opens enough of a door to Book 2 that listeners who get invested in Rafter, Benny, and Juanita will want to continue immediately. If you are listening with children who do not tolerate narrative loose ends, knowing Book 2 exists before you start is useful planning.
The novel's early chapters spend some time establishing the Bailey family history and the mechanics of the power-granting tradition, which moves at a slightly slower pace than the central adventure plot that follows. Younger listeners occasionally flag this setup as the only challenging part of the book, though most reviews indicate the payoff is sufficient to justify the patience required.
Who Will Get the Most From It
Almost Super is a natural recommendation for families who enjoyed Pixar's The Incredibles and are looking for audio content with a similar sensibility: genuine humor about superhero family dynamics, characters with distinct and well-drawn personalities, and a heart underneath the comedy. It works for independent listeners in the eight-to-twelve range and as family listening content where the humor is layered enough to engage adults. If your child has moved through Big Nate or the Diary of a Wimpy Kid format and is ready for longer chapter-book humor with more plot, Almost Super represents a comfortable step up. Parents who have found much middle-grade fiction too earnest or message-heavy will appreciate Jensen's lighter touch.
