What’s Jumping in June Books for You – Here are June books curated by author Andy Zach. You’ll love the latest bunch of books I’ve read. And there’s another review that just came in.
I finished my most recent review the other day on Goodreads:
Andy Zach’s writing takes flight in Secret Supers in Space, propelling disabled teen superheroes Jeremy, Aubrey, Dan, and Kayla into a cosmic summer adventure. Narrator Khai Lannor brings the characters’ energy and determination to life, making this audiobook an intergalactic joyride for fantasy fans of all ages. Buckle up and join the Secret Supers in their gravity-defying mission – this exhilarating journey is one you won’t want to miss!
Nemesis Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2023
Seth Ring maintains the reader’s interest in his series. He takes his super-powered mage, John Sutton, and nerfs him. He can’t use the vast amount of mana he has stored in his mana pool, because it only feeds the dragon inside him. The dragon has been lurking, waiting to take over John’s body when the dragon gets strong enough.
At the same time, John must face his toughest challenge yet: a vast army of magical beasts seeks to conquer the world.
Finally, the plant mage, Ryba is running out of mana. She needs a full supply to fight the beasts and only John can share his. But that might mean he’ll lose control to the dragon.
“Dear diary,” Jeremy dictated into his app on his tablet in his bedroom. “Today, I became a superhero.” Jeremy Gentle stopped, uncertain. Was that the best way to start his journal? Might as well just tell the story. He needed to sleep. He had a big algebra test tomorrow at Maryville Middle School.
Yesterday, school went as usual. Same old seventh grade. There were the same handicapped kids in the same class. Same problems transferring to the toilet from my wheelchair. Nothing new.
Oh, I take that back. I had one new, bad thing happen— I fell during physical therapy. There I was, between the parallel bars, halfway done. I tried with all my might to take another step. I couldn’t. My muscles screamed, at their end. My legs collapsed, and I hung like a marionette from the gait belt, held by my therapist, Fred Bernstein.
For once I was glad I was a skinny, twelve-year-old. I’m not even eighty pounds.
I gave up completely and flopped bonelessly. I might as well be on the floor, I thought. And then I was.
Hi, Dan!” Jeremy called to his best friend Dan Elanga as he rolled into the bus from the wheelchair lift. He drove to the wheelchair spot where the driver strapped him down.
“Hi, Jeremy! You sound excited. What’s up?” As usual, a big grin split Dan’s round, brown face. He’d come from Cameroon as a child. He’d been born blind, and his parents sacrificed their successful business to emigrate to the US where they felt he’d have better chances.
“Oh, nothing.” Jeremy wasn’t quite ready to share his secret, even with his best friend. Especially not with the bus driver tightening the wheelchair straps.
“That sounds like you’ve got a secret! C’mon, tell your old friend Dan!”
Jeremy gestured with his head toward the driver and then remembered Dan couldn’t see. As much as he disliked cerebral palsy, he still preferred having that to blindness.
The driver returned to his seat and drove off.
“Okay, but you can’t tell anyone.”
“Sounds like a good one!”
“Everyone will think I’m crazy if this gets out. Or I might be put in a circus.”
“I can’t wait to hear! You know I’ll keep it. Pinky promise.” Dan held out his big fist, pinky extended.
Dan was huge for thirteen, six feet tall and bulky and Jeremy was small for twelve. Jeremy’s small pinky curled around Dan’s big one.
Kayla Verdera screamed in frustration as she lost her balance and fell from her walker. Not this again! She had been wiping the drool from her face with her handkerchief and as she placed it in her purse at the side of the walker, she overbalanced and fell down. Her helmeted head bounced off the floor next to Dan Elanga.
“Oh, Kayla, are you all right?” asked their special ed homeroom teacher, Bonita Fuller. Worry creased her face.
“Let me help her get back up,” Dan Elanga offered. He gently picked her up from where he heard her fall and placed her back in the walker. Guided by Mrs. Fuller, Kayla sat at her desk. The other students, Jeremy and Aubrey, watched with concern.
“Thanks, Dan,” said Mrs. Fuller. “I can pick her up, but not as easily as you. Kayla, are you all right? Do you need to go to the infirmary?”
Kayla signed “Okay” and then shook her head. She lost her power of speech and her balance when she contracted spinal meningitis last year. That also caused her to drool at times. Her fingers flew over the tablet on her desk. A female voice spoke from the tablet. “Sorry. I lost my balance.”
Kayla carried her tablet everywhere. It hung in easy reach on her walker. She used it to talk to people, picking out words and then sending them to her voice app to speak them. She could pick any voice she wanted, and she used the pop star, Mackenzie Ziegler.
My Disabled Superheroes – Aubrey Wilcowsky
Aubrey Wilcowsky – has super strength
Aubrey towered over her, big and burly, a kind of tomboy and athlete. Kayla felt small and skinny next to her. Aubrey could talk a knob off a door and was outgoing and friendly to a fault. Kayla only talked when she had to. Now I can’t talk at all.Aubrey just muddled through school. She was a year older but still in our grade. Even though I was quiet, I had been popular with popular kids in school—until I started using a walker.Aubrey just hung around with the sports crowd.
They became friends as Kayla tutored her. Their friendship survived Aubrey’s double amputation. She’d just been fitted for prosthetic legs when Kayla got her spinal meningitis. Aubrey didn’t care. She was a brick.
Jeremy has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get around. He is in a special education class with Dan, who is blind, Kayla, who was mute and used a walker, and Audrey, who lost her legs and uses crutches. One afternoon, when conducting experiments in his laboratory, Jeremy accidentally gives himself superpowers. Specifically, he gains the ability of telekinesis, which he can use to help himself walk, cause his wheelchair to travel at much higher speeds, and even fly. Not wanting to keep this discovery to himself, Jeremy tells his 3 friends about it and gives each of them superpowers as well. But now that they have superpowers, what should they do? Following the words of Uncle Ben of Spiderman, they decide they must use their powers for good, beginning by trying to solve a case of a stolen car, and keep their identities a secret, modeling their costumes on the Incredibles.
This book was a fun story that placed individuals with disabilities front and center in the story. While the superpowers allow them to do things they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise, it is what they choose to do with their powers that makes all the difference. Also, even with their superpowers, their initial disabilities aren’t erased, which I think is important. I liked to development of the characters and how they interacted and supported each other; I only wish the book had been longer so I could have spent more time with them. I am glad that there’s a sequel already published, and I look forward to reading/listening to it.
An uplifting tale of how four students find that within disability is ability. Looking past who others think they are was the way the four came together to make a difference not only in their own lives but the lives of those around them. The main theme of this tale is practice, practice, practice.
Can young teens with disabilities be super heros; In Andy Zach’s Secret Supers they can!! We meet Jeremy, a middle school student with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair bound and struggles in physical therapy but does not struggle with anything STEM related. While running an experiment in his basement lab he gives himself a super power. When he tries the experiment again he gives his best friend Dan, who is blind, a different power. Soon Jeremy, Dan, and their friends and classmates Kayla and Aubry are all super powered and fighting crime! They also end up fighting against their special ed. classroom being shut down and separated into several different schools.
This story gives kids with disabilities a chance to see themselves as superheroes and a way for teens without disabilities to see disabilabled classmates in a different light.
More May Books for You – curated by author Andy Zach. Here is the latest batch of books I’ve read–plus another review that just popped up in my feed. You may like some of my favorite fantasy and SciFi.
I finished my most recent review the other day on Goodreads:
This is my first book in the Nova Terra series, but not my first by Seth Ring. This is sci-fi/fantasy. It’s supposed to be total immersion VR with AI avatars. But the in game action is all RPG fantasy.
That said, we have a unique pair of main characters: Xavier an 8′ 9″ giant in real life who inherited his parents’ business. Due to his extreme growth rate, he has a variety of health issues, including splitting his skin open if he moves too fast. He travels in a custom-made wheel chair.
His older cousin Julia is just as interesting. She runs the business and taken care of Xavier like a mom since their parents were killed.
Xavier decides to go permanently into the the VR world Nova Terra while doctors perform a complex treatment on his skin and body to solve his health problems.
His huge size causes the game’s AI to give him a unique race: Titan. That’s when the story starts.
Fantastic listen listened to this with my younger brother he really seemed to enjoy this even as I found myself giggling a few times great Voice work and premises highly recommend this to parents looking to get their kids more into books
Xavier, now named Thorn in the RPG game Nova Terra, continues on his questing in an RPG game where he is locked online for years, while his body undergoes intense medical treatment for years.
Thorn has had great success in the game due to his great strength and endurance from his Titan race. He realizes he falls short in his weapon use. He goes on various quests to improve his skills. Then he lucks out and joins up with an elite team from the guild Ragonak as their porter, carrying weapons and loot.
After several successful adventures, he begins building friendships with the team, even the standoffish leader, Ouroboros. This is new for him, for he’s had no real-life friendships at all.
On their biggest quest yet, they must steal a prize from an arch-devil. They fight their toughest fights and meet up with the final boss, the arch-devil. They begin negotiating, and then . . .
