Secret Supers - Andy Zach

Author: Andy Zach

Narrator: Luke Castle

Genre: Children's Fiction

Rating: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: You would think that a book about disabled superheroes would easily go in my “recommended” list, but no. This book needs to do a rethink on quite a lot of the content.

Story:

Twelve year old Jeremy Gentle has cerebral palsy and hence uses a wheelchair. He is also a tech whiz. While experimenting at home, he ends up getting a superpower. When he decides to repeat the experiment with his classmate and best friend Dan who has been blind since birth, Dan ends up getting a different superpower. The same process is repeated with two other disabled friends, Kayla and Aubrey. When the four friends realise how their new superpowers work wonderfully in tandem with each other, they decide to team up as superheroes and use their powers for the betterment of the world.

In terms of intent? The book gets a few marks. In terms of execution, it fails miserably. If I had read this a couple of decades ago, I might have loved it for its innovative "magical" storyline, because those were the days when I was unaware of right terminology and inclusive treatment of everyone in society. But today, having such a book is a big no-no.

The idea of having disabled kids as superheroes is great. But why do these children need to get a superpower that rids them of their disability (albeit indirectly) if they are to make a change in the world? Are these children nothing beyond their physical limitations? I would have still let this point go if the approach of the book balanced itself fairly. But there are many disparaging comments about disability and being disabled. One character remarks about the disabled children being the “lowest of the lows.” Imagine a disabled child reading this book! How would they feel on reading such stupid remarks?

The problems with the story don’t stop at its treatment of disability. Aubrey is supposedly heavy so there are many remarks about her weight and the resulting inability to do things like climbing a rope. Then there is some content about white privilege, courtesy Dan’s Cameroonian background. One of the children also refers to their group as “crippled kids”, which I am pretty sure isn’t an acceptable term anymore.

There are also logical inconsistences in the plot. There’s a big hoohah made about keeping their superpower a secret but Jeremy seems to be flying his car everywhere. Then Aubrey reveals her actual name during an investigation with a gang member. How are they still a secret team???

The book has some fun moments. The magic show is especially interesting. I also enjoyed the unity and bond among the four friends. But mere good moments aren’t enough when the overall content is so faulty.

I wish with all my heart that a disabled person picks up this book and provides his/her/their feedback on it so that I can get a genuine first-hand perspective on what I perceive to be major problem areas. As a non-disabled person, I have only tried to guess at the situation but if I found it offensive, I am pretty sure my gut feeling can’t go so wrong.

I cannot recommend this book, especially not to families with disabled children.

I heard the audiobook, which clocks at just over 3 hours and is narrated by Luke Castle. The narrator gets full marks for intent but again, the execution falls short. He tries his best to provide a different accent for every character. Some of these accents work but many sound quite caricatural. His accent for Jeremy was especially irritating with its whiny, nasal quality. There are some disturbances in the background at times. There are also a couple of pronunciation errors.

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook from the author through StoryOrigin and these are my honest thoughts about it.