Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider Man Novel (audiobook)

 

Stars: 4 stars for being a boy book magnet and a catchy listen.

My Thoughts:

Jason Reynolds has a style that appeals to middle level readers because he is able to capture the voice of inner city youth. This audiobook is about Miles' day in suspension, well after he saves the world from a super baddy, but that seems to be how it goes for him. Nothing is ever easy peasy for our young superhero. I don't know if trouble finds him or that he is literally the only one that can protect his neighborhood. If you don't like termites, this one will make you itchy.

The same characters in the Morales as Spiderman franchise are still here and Reynolds adds in his angsty, crush obsessed, teen writer voice by using a mixture of quick pacing, poetic stylings, repetition of key terms and humor. 

If older teens are looking for a similar pacing and drawn out angst as this, have them try Reynolds' Twenty-Four Seconds from Now. . .: a LOVE story.

The audiobook itself with the two voices of Guy Lockard and Nile Bullock makes this short read at almost 4 hours fun and engaging. I stayed in the parking lot so I could finish.

From the Publisher:

Miles Morales is just your average teenager. He has unexpectedly become totally obsessed with poetry and can never seem to do much more than babble around his crush. Nothing too weird. Oh! Except, just yesterday, he used his Spidey superpowers to save the world (no biggie) from an evil mastermind called The Warden. And the grand prize Miles gets for that is…

Suspension.

But what begins as a long boring day of in-school suspension is interrupted by a little bzzz in his mind. His Spidey Sense is telling him there’s something not quite right here, and soon he finds himself in a fierce battle with an insidious…termite?! His unexpected foe is hiding a secret, one that could lead to the destruction of the world’s history—especially Black and Brown history—and only Miles can stop him. Yeah, just a typical day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Publication Information:

Author: Jason Reynolds

Narrators: Guy Lockard, Nile Bullock

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (May 2, 2023)

Listening Length: 3 hours 53 min

Quincredible Vol 2: The Hero Within

Publication Date: July 13, 2021

My Thoughts:

My review of Quincredible Volume 1 still holds true in volume 2, which  is a great thing because I don't like when heroes (or villains) suddenly change. Batman should always be moody/broody, Spiderman is always kind of dorky and Quinton is a good guy who loves his parents and is a hopeless romantic who does not seem to really get the girl. I think that is why he reminds me so much of Spiderman, especially the Miles Morales version of Spiderman. 

Another thing that is very evident about Quin is he is not a solo act. He may be invincible, but he is young and not very strong so in his second adventure, he again must rely on others like Glow to get him out of jams. His love for New Orleans, his passion for social justice is very admirable. But his skill set or lack of a skill set definitely gets him into hot water. He is definitely not an international or even national hero. Perhaps, though, with help, he can continue to be the New Orleans version of the friendly neighborhood Quincredible. 

As volume 2s go, what I really appreciated was Quin's relationship with his parents. Now that they know that Quin is "enhanced," they are not sure how to parent him. His father is not sure what he can offer his son. He questions what his worth is as a father when his son can actually save the world. This was an honest conversation and not something we always see in hero comics. Even the girl talk with his mom was genuine and a nice reprieve from the action.  I look forward to volume 3 with the very great team of Rodney Barnes (writer) and Selina Espiritu (illustrator).

From the Publisher:

Rodney Barnes and Selina Espiritu return for another Quincredible adventure, this time diving into the world of Voodoo. Quinton West is back as the would-be hero of his city New Orleans, battling against a new enemy who wishes to claim the historical land for himself.

When meteors fell to Earth Quinton West was gifted with the power of invulnerability. Seeing others take up hero identities, Quinton decided to help his city of New Orleans in his own way. Using his smarts, creativity and a bit of training from his mentor Glow, Quinton is on his way to becoming Quincredible, hero of New Orleans!

But even superheroes must do homework, and Quinton’s newest assignment is to learn the history of New Orleans and Voodoo. An assignment that leads him to the mysterious Madame Adelaide who gives him a new task to fulfill for the good of New Orleans. Is Madame Adelaide a spirit? An enhanced human? And what is the evil that threatens New Orleans that Quinton must stop? 

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Tristan Strong, 1)

 

From the Publisher:

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods.

Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from the tragedy. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it--is that a doll?--and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price.

Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?

My Thoughts:

The publishers call this a middle grade American Gods (Neil Gaiman), but this is a "Rick Riordan presents" so I will sell this as a centrifugal book spinning from or returning back to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. True, Tristan is not half god, but when he enters Alke, he will find out that he brings powers with him passed down from his Nana as well as his best friend Eddie. 

Like Riordan's books, a new generation of readers are introduced or re-introduced to heroes and gods of the past, except these are African American folk heroes and West African gods. I recognized some of the characters from folk tales that are still shared with young students, like John Henry with his mighty hammer and Brer Rabbit (currently most known outside of the African American community as part of the Disney ride Splash Mountain - based on Song of the South), as well as Anansi the trickster. But what this book adds is more depth and complexity to even the familiar characters. This book will ensure that these characters stay present with this new generation and hopefully, this book will lead young readers back to the original stories to find out more about Nyame or Nyambe, the sky deity from South Gana, Gum Baby and even Maafa. 

Two of these, Alke (which is the world he lands in) and Maafa intrigued me enough to look them up. What I found was interesting in that perhaps Alke may perhaps represent Africa, but it is also interesting that there is an Alke in Greek mythology and was one of the Amazonians (like Wonder Woman?). Finally, when I looked up Maafa as the source of the malevolence in Alke, I found that Maafa refers to the Black Holocaust, a Kiswahili term for disaster, calamity, or terrible occurrence. It is the term used to describe the Trans-Atlantic slave trade/middle passage, which is why when it finally appears, it looks like a ship and also why the creatures that come from the Maafa to capture the folks in Alke are rusting fetterlings that look like slave shackles. I have more to explore based on the references in this book, but that just shows that the adventure and Tristan himself are motivation to read this, but also as an adult, this tween book gives me a great starting place to do my own research. 

Follow this book with Percy Jackson or if you want to go back to a more "canonical"/centripetal book, read or reread the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis (It starts with The Magicians's Nephew but most children have seen and are more familiar with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe book 2). There is also a second Tristan Strong book out now, Tristan Strong Destroys the World.