This ingeniously crafted illustrated novel offers a multifaceted and heartfelt take on the classic superhero story. Portico Reeves is a kid with a “secret secret” he likes to think of himself as Stuntboy, a homegrown and self-styled superhero whose power is “making sure all the other heroes stay super. And safe. Supersafe.”
A family of five has a lot to do before Grandma’s visit; luckily, the father narrating McGinty’s (The Water Lady, rev. 3/21) energetically rhyming story is good at delegating: “Bobby, mop the floor. / Dad will scrub the dishes. / I’ll vacuum the rug. / Sarah, feed the fishes.”
In 1985 Boynton followed up her popular 1982 board book The Going to Bed Book with a “larger and longer” picture-book version, which has now been redrawn with small differences in the art.
Most animals live in groups, but some live most of their lives by themselves. Stein introduces four solitary species and contrasts their contented solo lifestyles with social animals in similar habitats.
“On this day, my father was murdered because he said a prayer.” So begins the saga of thirteen-year-old Noah Cope, who becomes caught up in the American Revolution. Noah’s father had been a pastor and a Loyalist in the (fictional) town of Tullbury, Massachusetts. Upon his death, Noah’s family moves to Boston, where the teen gets a job at the (nonfictional) Green Dragon tavern, spying for the British.