MAKER GIRL AND PROFESSOR SMARTS

With no superheroes in sight, a young maker and her brainy buddy pick up the slack when a villain threatens to turn all the ice cream in town into green slime.

In this series starter with a distinctly STEM-centric drift, 12-year-old gadgeteer Yael “Yaya” Levy springs into action, whipping up suitable costumes and dragging along her studious bestie, Jesús “Chuy” Reyes. Their mission: to prevent slime bomber Mr. Antifreeze from destroying the yummiest treat in New Bork City (“not a typo,” as a footnote makes clear). Readers will laugh at the banter and may even want to try out the step-by-step directions for two homemade creations, which help to head off the crisis. By book’s end, they’ll likely come to agree with the duo’s claims that “MAKING STUFF!” and “KNOWING STUFF!” are indeed superpowers. Other supervillains in town go by monikers such as the Fluffernator and “Snot Lady,” and Florentine allows readers to see Mr. Antifreeze’s vulnerable side; the level of actual or potential violence here is low. Thanks to dramatic poses and exaggerated expressions, the dynamic duo’s big personalities come through clearly in Florentine’s limber cartoon scenes. Yael is light-skinned, while Chuy is brown-skinned and cued Latine; the entire cast displays a broadly diverse range of racial and cultural identities.

Engineering and chemistry save the day in this sunny series opener.