December 15, 2015

Superheroes: Born and Made: A youngCanLit book list

Superheroes are all the rage on TV, in the movies and in books.  We all like to believe that there is someone extraordinary who can save the day when ordinary just isn't enough.  Some superheroes are born but some are made and some are created from the ordinary that often seems to be insufficient to deal with the challenges of life, real or imagined.  Some are embedded in the myths of the ancients but their superhero status cannot be denied.  Their gifts go beyond the extraordinary and are necessary to make things right.  See if you don't agree.

Allow me present to you my 
Superheroes: Born and Made 
youngCanLit booklist!
(drum roll, please)


PICTURE BOOKS
Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero
by Anne Cottringer
Illustrated by Alex T. Smith
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2008
By day, Eliot is a quiet boy who likes to read and play with his toys. But when the clock strikes midnight, Eliot is transformed into a hero. And his mission is to deal with a giant meteor hurtling towards Earth.

Perfect Man
by Troy Wilson
Illustrated by Dean Griffiths
Orca Book Publishers
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2004
Michael's superhero abandons him, leaving him to discover his own super powers with the help of a wonderful teacher.

Superfab Saves the Day
by Jean Leroy and Bérengère Delaporte
Illustrated by Bérengère Delaporte
Translated by Sarah Quinn
Owlkids
40 pp.
Ages 4-7
2014
Superfab's stylish sense usually makes him late for superhero-fighting of bad guys but his fashion sense becomes a strength when faced with one monster.
Super Red Riding Hood
by Claudia Dávila
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2014
When her mother sends her on a "mission" that takes her into the deep, dark woods, Ruby puts on her red cloak and becomes Super Red Riding Hood, a superhero who is scared of nothing--except coming face-to-face with a big, bad wolf.



NOVELS
Blac Ice
by Anthony Stanberry
Freeze DNA
Ages 8-12
2007
Three brothers discover they have the ability to assume the powers of the elements, due to genetic experiments performed on them as part of a military program to create the ultimate soldier.


The Blackwell Pages
Books 1 and 2 Reviewed here

Loki's Wolves
by K. L. Armstrong and M. A. Marr
Little Brown and Company
364 pp.
Ages 10-14
2013

Odin's Ravens
by K. L. Armstrong and  M. A. Marr
Little Brown and Company
352 pp.
Ages 10-14
2014

Thor's Serpents
by K. L. Armstrong and  M. A. Marr
Little Brown and Company
368 pp.
Ages 10-14
2015
Matt Thorsen, descendant of Thor, must work with the descendants of other Norse gods to be the champion who will save the world from Ragnarök, and work against those who want to see him fail.

The Chemo Kid
by John Lipsyte
HarperCollins Canada
167 pp.
Ages 12+
1992
When the chemotherapy drugs he takes transform him from wimp to superhero, sixteen-year-old Fred and his friends plot to rid the town of its most lethal environmental hazard: the toxic waste contaminating their water supply.

The Comic Book War
by Jacqueline Guest
Coteau Books
190 pp.
Ages 11-14
2014
Teen Robert gets a job delivering telegrams for Canadian Pacific in Calgary during WWII in order to buy comic books that he believes will help superheroes protect the soldiers, including his own brothers, fighting in Europe.

Heck, Superhero
by Martine Leavitt
Red Deer Press
144 pp.
Ages 11-14
2004
In order to help him deal with his mother's mental illness, thirteen-year-old Hector imagines himself as a superhero and pretends things are manageable.  But, when they end up on the street and his mother goes missing, Heck only begins to recognize their need for help when he meets a boy dealing with his own mental health issues.


Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle?
by Sara Leach
Orca Book Publishers
101 pp.
Ages 8-11
2009
Eleven-year-old Jake Reynolds dreams of being a superhero, but he's not exactly brave, especially when it comes to the wolves on the island where he and his family are staying.


Kung Pow Chicken

Let’s Get Cracking
by Cyndi Marko
Scholastic Canada
72 pp.
Ages 5-7
2014

Bok! Bok! Boom!
by Cyndi Marko
Scholastic Canada
80 pp.
Ages 5-7
2014

The Birdy Snatchers
by Cyndi Marko
Scholastic Canada
80 pp.
Ages 5-7
2014

Heroes on the Side
by Cyndi Marko
Scholastic Canada
80 pp.
Ages 5-7
2014
Gordon Blue and his brother Benny are superheroes Kung Pow Chicken and his sidekick Egg Drop, whose first adventure has the two looking to save Fowladelphia from Granny Goosebumps, who has filled the city with cookies that cause chickens' feathers to fall off.



The Last Superhero
by Kristin Butcher
Dundurn
118 pp.
Ages 8-12
2010
Seventh-grader Jas is working on an adventure comic he hopes will be his ticket into an elite summer art program. But  then he meets Wren, an eccentric, crusading grade seven girl, who is determined to avenge the victims of school bullies and to save a local heritage firehouse from demolition.

Project Superhero 
by E. Paul Zehr
ECW Press
224 pp.
Ages 8-12
2014
Story of a class assignment in which students get to create their own superheroes, while examining what makes someone a hero.

Rocket Man
by Jan L. Coates
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
204 pp.
Ages 9+
2014
If only Bob could go back to being the Mr. Invisible of his superhero days, before he wasn’t always being compared to his perfect siblings.  But then his father gets sicker and sicker with cancer, and now Bob needs some pointers on how to be The Rocketman.



Starling

Starling
by Lesley Livingston
HarperCollins Canada
341 pp.
Ages 12+
2012
Reviewed here

Descendant
by Lesley Livingston
HarperCollins Canada
320 pp.
Ages 12+
2013
Reviewed here

Transcendent
by Lesley Livingston
HarperCollins Canada
357 pp.
Ages 12+
2014
The Fennrys Wolf of Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange series returns to find himself falling for Mason Starling whose family had dedicated their lives to the service of the Norse gods and vowing to help bring about Ragnarok.  Together the two must fight those that plot to end of the world and find the means to protect each other.

Supermutant Magic Academy
by Jillian Tamaki
Drawn and Quaterly
224 pp.
Ages 12+
2015
High school is filled with typical teen angst, even amongst the mutants, witches and superheroes of the Supermutant Magic Academy prep school.


Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit
by Cary Fagan
Tundra Books
192 pp.
Ages 8-12
2008
In this third book of the series, evil Kaspar Snit from The Fortress of Kaspar Snit returns a different man. While Eleanor Bland and her brother create ten lessons that Kaspar must follow in order to reform his criminal ways and win true love, they must avoid detection by a superhero-seeking detective.

The Vindico
by Wesley King
Penguin
298 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

The Feros
by Wesley King
Penguin
313 pp.
Ages 12+
2013
When supervillains of the Vindico realize they are getting too old to fight the League of Heroes, they kidnap and begin training five teens, but these teens are going to become the next generation of evil without a fight. In fact, in The Feros, the teens use their new superpowers to try to save abducted members of the League of Heroes.





NON-FICTION
Draw Out the Story: Ten Secrets to Creating Your Own Comics
by Brian McLachlan
Owlkids
144 pp.
Ages 9-11
2013
Offers advice for effective storytelling in comic book format, covering such topics as colour, placement, pacing, visually representing ideas, and other techniques for short gag strips as well as graphic novels and other more involved storylines

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