Superpowers in Skulduggery Pleasant reading minds, shape changing and ‘bringing fire’ are all superpowers characters have displayed. Given that Stephanie is said to be a descendant of a great sorcerer, she potentially has supernatural powers yet to be revealed ... and they could be anything!

How about you? What would your choice of one amazing superpower be? Underwater breathing? Flying? Wall crawling? Stopping time? Invisibility? Laser vision? Think carefully about this. You might want to list some ideas before deciding on one.

Celebrity superpowers It is interesting that many celebrities such as Jamie Oliver, David Attenborough, Charlotte Church and Bruce Willis would choose the superpower of flight. Only a cloak of invisibility would satisfy Gok Wan and Katie Price, but Nick Clegg and David Cameron both favour the gift of teleportation to save on travel time. Tom Jones just desires immortality!

How about you? The BIG QUESTION is, does your new power prove to be a blessing or a curse in your everyday life? [Think about all different scenarios ...]

Not-so superpower Carol Ann Duffy has written a poem about King Midas, who was granted his wish for the superpower of a golden touch (everything he touched turned to gold – including food, the cat ... the toilet). Duffy wrote her poem from King Midas’s wife’s perspective to demonstrate the influence of his ‘superpower’ on her life. When the poem opens, she is ignorant of the king’s bestowed gift. Cooking their supper, she looks from the steamed-up kitchen window and thinks her husband is fitting gold fairy lights in the pear tree! Listen to this reading of the poem to see how it only got worse.

Superpower poetry Having chosen a superpower you are now going to write your own poem in Free Verse. In your poem write either as yourself or as an observer (mum, dad, a friend, brother, sister or other relation). Reveal in detail how the chosen superpower affects your everyday life – you may chose to write about an amusing incident or about something amazing or even a terrible mishap.

Superpower poetry You might try to keep your power secret or be boastful about it and show it off or it might prove to be a burden. Make your poem engaging and entertaining. Free verse is easy as long as you can get creative. Free Verse is very flexible since it has few rules.

Superpower poetry Without set rules, free verse poems do not need to have a certain structure and you are free to decide where to break your poem into verses (stanzas). The lines can be long and short. A great thing about free verse poems is that you do not need to worry about rhyming (if the odd line here and there rhymes, that doesn’t matter either!). It is important for you to feel that the poem you write does have a natural flow to it. Free verse uses descriptive and vivid language.

To get you thinking ... Here are a few examples of openings using Free Verse: 1. Nothing's changed except me and the facts And the sadness I didn't mean to start. I thought the world was mine once I Could read minds ... 2. I was peeling potatoes for a shepherd’s pie When he wandered in from school in his crumpled uniform Secretive and giggly – almost high. One minute he was standing by the fridge and then he’d Gone!