[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Bloomsbury Children’s Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Murphy is sick of moving. They’ve moved so often it’s not even worthwhile for Murph to make friends at each new school. But this move is particularly bad. Murph’s mom can’t even find a school to take him! All the area middle schools are full, and she’s starting to get desperate.
One day she and Murphy stumble across a building labeled “The School.” The headmaster tries to put her off like the rest, but when she begs, stating his capabilities and her belief that in the right environment Murphy could “fly,” the headmaster perks up and invites Murph to the school.
But Murph might as well be in school in a foreign country because he doesn’t understand ANYTHING going on in this school. In one class, the teacher talks about “Capes” but no one in class is wearing one. And he’d swear he saw another student FLY onto the school grounds.
It turns out The School is a training institute for kids with powers of all sorts. Only a select few will be good enough to join the Heroes Alliance. The rest will learn to hide their powers from the world.
But a science experiment gone wrong brings a new villain on the scene. And he is very interested in the kids at The School.
Review
This is a fun, quirky superhero story. It reminds me a lot of the NERDS series by Michael Buckley. With the powers and the villains and the narrator that addresses the reader, it all had a familiar feel to it.
The hero school is pretty typical for the genre. There are kids whose powers seem too lame to be useful, kids who use their powers for bullying, and teachers who do the same with their positions. It felt a little like the movie Sky High.
There were layers to the villainous portions of the book, which was fun. There’s the science-experiment-gone-wrong guy at the top, the brains behind the schemes, and then a potential traitor hinted at for a sequel.
There’s a lot of silliness that will appeal to kids, but for me I felt like sometimes the authors were trying too hard. For example, at a big reveal moment, they inserted a random story about a rabbit. Instead of it being amusing, it was annoying (for me as an adult – kids might love it). I think they instead could have cut away to a villain scene or two. That would have delayed the reveal and prolonged the tension while keeping the reader engaged in the story. As I said, kids might love it.
I loved the illustrations. They really added a nice touch to the storytelling. And there’s a great message in the book, too, that anyone can be a hero. I’d put this in the hands of third and fourth grade students; I think they would love it.