Superfunk's little sister is 5 years old, cute, confident and quite resilient. Where Superfunk puts up with his name, Freaky-Dee embraces hers. Freaky actually believes herself to be a super hero, although her only powers appear to be cuteness and enthusiasm. That may be enough.

She gives back as good as she gets with her brother's taunting. She has a way with a catch-phrase ("Keep your underpants on!"), but will just as often rely on triumphantly shouting her own name to win an argument. She has just started kindergarten this year, and Freaky welcomes this brave new world. Despite some occasional weaknesses in her resolve, such as having second thoughts about wearing her super hero costume to school, Freaky has the confidence to rise to any challenge school can throw at her. Including the withering put-downs of class snob Miranda, and her brother's goofy crush on her teacher, Ms. Juarez.

It helps that Freaky bonded with her fellow super hero classmate Jane Frost (a.k.a. The Silver Streak) on the first day of school. The girls enjoy playing with their collections of Cutie-Baby stuffed animals, drawing comic book starring themselves, attending meetings of their Brownie-like group the Peace Friends, as well as their daily superhero duties. This super duo can handle most anything.

In short, the little girl with the "f" on her shirt is a little firecracker, but not in the dangerous, illegal-in-New-York-State sort of way.

© 2007 by David Cowles