Publisher's Weekly Review
In this engaging middle-grade adventure, Anderson (Standard Hero Behavior) again examines the idea of heroism, this time through the lives of superpowered sidekicks. Thirteen-year-old Andrew "The Sensationalist" Bean is part of the H.E.R.O. program for aspiring sidekicks, but his mentor, the legendary Titan, is an alcoholic no-show, leaving Andrew to fend for himself against supervillains and their deathtraps. When the infamous Dealer returns from the dead and reunites his deadly henchmen, the entire city is put at risk. Adult heroes are vanishing, their sidekicks are under attack, and someone associated with H.E.R.O. may be a traitor. Amid the chaos and danger, Andrew tries to embrace his heroic potential. Anderson tackles some heady topics, including superhero morality, teenage confusion, and divided loyalties, playing with the usual comic book tropes without treading on overly familiar ground (even for fans of Jack Ferraiolo's similar 2011 novel, Sidekicks). There's a lot to enjoy, from memorable characters to a complex yet accessible plot, in this superhero story that any comics fan will enjoy. Ages 8-12. Agent: Quinlan Lee, Adams Literary. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Andrew Bean's superpower isn't something cool like turning to stone or shooting lasers from his eyes; it's being extra sensitive to things like smells and sounds. No wonder his mentor, the Titan, hasn't shown up to help him save the city of Justicia. Abundant action and comedy play nicely against more thoughtful moments about the nature of good, evil, and middle school. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Comic-book fans like to talk about how much they hate sidekicks. No one dreams about being Robin. They want to grow up to be Batman. But it turns out that a sidekick is the perfect metaphor for adolescence. Sidekicks are smart, energetic and imaginative--and they have no authority at all. They can't drive or vote, but they can shoot electric bolts out of their fingertips. Anderson's main character is a sidekick named Andrew Bean. Like the best superheroes, he's down on his luck, always forgetting his utility belt when he needs it. Andrew is part of a school environmental club, H.E.R.O., that--in the novel's best joke--doubles as a training program for sidekicks (motto: "WE KEEP THE TRASH OFF THE STREETS"). Andrew's mentor is the Titan, an aging hero who'd rather go out drinking than fight crime. The novel's real theme is disillusionment. Before the last chapter, Andrew will have his heart broken more than once. The best superheroes always do. The book's big plot twists are never much of a surprise, but the smaller revelations are deeply moving. The secret that tore apart the Legion of Justice, which the now-dissolute Titan used to lead, turns out to be very simple and very sad. In the end, the tale is so heartbreaking that it's the perfect training manual for superheroes everywhere. And that means all of us. (Fantasy. 9-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The community of Justicia may seem like Anywhere, USA, but it's home to an abundance of superheroes or Supers as they are known locally and Highview Middle School has a secret training class for superhero sidekicks. Andrew Drew Bean, one of the six sidekicks-in-training, is not only saddled with the usual middle-school angst but a problematic Super as well. With most of the Supers absent, a crime wave commences and a supervillain threatens. This draws heavily on the beloved superhero genre, and features plenty of hair-raising action and characters knocked about and annihilated. But it is the sarcastic middle-school humor that sets the tone. Drew's take on his teenage problems are well balanced with the unique situations arising from being part of an elite (and somewhat nerdy) team. Big action sequences notwithstanding, this is more about small moments and dealing with less-than-perfect people and circumstances. Those who like their fantasy grounded firmly in the real world will enjoy this one.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Six middle schoolers participate in a secret training program to fight evil. I WANTED to hate this book. After all, this was a book for children, and I don't do children's books. I was totally lost by Page 2 of the preface - wondering what a Zilchbot was (12 dozen of them were attacking Captain Marvelous and his friends) and why I should care about Kid Caliber or the Diamond Dame (heroes trapped in the Nulzone). As for Captain Marvelous, he seemed like a vanilla remake - a rip-off, really - of Superman, from the big red "M" on his chest to his ruby red cape and captaincy of the Legion of Justice. I am an authority on the Man of Steel, having written a full-fledged biography of him. "I know Superman, Superman is a friend of mine," I was tempted to write to the author, John David Anderson, "and Mr. Anderson, Captain Marvelous is no Superman!" I was, of course, wrong, as authorities generally are. After just two chapters, I realized this was as riveting a rendition of superdom as even Superman's creator, Jerry Siegel, could have pulled off. And while Anderson's characters can't yet claim the 75-year staying power of Siegel's Superman, they can offer a lot of fun to young readers and even to superannuated ones like me. Anderson, it turns out, knows Superman and the other golden-age comic book heroes well enough to understand when to pay homage and when to modernize or even parody. His heroes still band together, but some "timeshare, like Helios and Nocturne, who conveniently split day and evening shifts on account of one is solar powered and the other is half vampire." And when he takes us to a dive frequented by Titan, a wayward hero, the author tells us: "It's not a front for a top-secret headquarters that is accessed by an elevator that appears when you pull on the center beer tap. . . . It's just a beat-up hole-in-thewall bar." He knows his audience, too, using references that will be familiar to young readers. Days of the week are differentiated by school cafeteria meals - Mondays are "turkey burger day" with "applesauce that tastes like tin and turkey that tastes like mulch," while Tuesdays feature "the salad with a vacuum-sealed baggie of ham cubes that look as if they might be made out of used pencil erasers." His 13-year-old narrator confesses he has "a zit on my lefteyebrow that hurts every time I blink, I've been beaten up four times (not in costume), and I still ha ven't kissed a girl yet. Unless you count Suzie Walsh, which I don't, because it was three years ago, the bottle clearly got kicked, and the whole thing lasted, maybe, a nanosecond." ANDERSON'S greatest gifts to superdom, however, are his pint-size, semi-super characters - the "sidekicks" of the title - who are all his own and, now, ours. They are middle schoolers, six altogether, who participate in a secret H.E.R.O. training program that pairs them with a Super whom they help "fight the forces of evil, save damsels, . . . that sort of thing." Each sidekick has an intriguing and enviable special power: that of secreting a substance that turns your skin to granite, shooting electricity from your fingertips, walking through walls. Or, coolest on anyone's fantasy list, our narrator's "hypersensatia" that lets him see, smell and hear things better than anyone on the planet, and transforms him from acned and bullied Andrew Macon Bean into the Sensationalist. "Sidekicked" is the story of how wouldbe heroes struggle with their dual identities, aging Supers and O.C.'s (ordinary citizens). "When you're a teenager, everybody is waiting for you to be something or somebody else," Andrew, a k a the Sensationalist, tells us. "Are you the helpless nerd with the backpack on hoping you don't get the snot beat out of you by the school bully, or the helpless nerd with the mask on, hoping you don't get the snot beat out of you by the town's crazy new supervillain?" Jerry Siegel couldn't have said it any better. Larry Tye's latest book is "Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero." SIDEKICKED By John David Anderson 373 pp. Walden Pond Press/ HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. (Middle grade; ages 8 to 12)
