Sidekicks Jack D. Ferraiolo

The following paragraph is the text from Audible.com and it does a good job of making a quick summary.  I grew up on comic books, which might be why I like graphic novels among my literature.  This book, however, is not a graphic novel, it is a true novel about a graphic (comic book) character and that works perfectly as the “Bright Boy” sidekick deals with his teen age angst, his hate of his costume and the fact that in saving a very good looking victim he got an erection that was caught on the news camera and has made him a laughing stock – something his anonymous alter ego has a difficulty dealing with.  And of course his one dimensional superhero partner cannot even use the word erection in his stilted vocabulary.

Author of The Big Splash and Emmy®-winning writer for PBS's WordGirl, Jack D. Ferraiolo delivers the uproarious adventure of a different kind of hero. Behind every superhero stands a trusty - though less glamorous - sidekick. For Phantom Justice there is (drumroll, please) Bright Boy! Superfast and superstrong! Of course, when not fighting crime, Bright Boy leads a humbler existence as ordinary kid Scott Hutchinson. The superhero job might make for a plum gig, but after a humiliating incident with his spandex costume, Scott finds his world isn't exactly the stuff of dreams.

Poor Scott, a high school boy, who cannot respond to the bullies and react to the things he hears.  It is so much for a teenager who has his own teen angst and now has a secret hero identity to protect.   

Then, what happens when you discover that a classmate is the sidekick of his ultimate enemy and that classmate knows who he is too.  What a conundrum – and the sidekick is really a girl.

Then to add to the enjoyment of this fun novel – we have to examine good versus bad, what is evil?  Some good topics to play with as you follow the novels characters and the choices that they make.

The book requires some familiarity with superheroes – which is not so hard now that movies have turned their spotlight on them.  If you accept their possible reality, than the reality of this book is yours and it is really fun.  I could not stop – the romance, the twists are really enjoyable.  Don’t start unless you have the time to keep reading – it is difficult to put down.