Boy 2.0
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An action-packed superhero story from New York Times bestselling author Tracey Baptiste
Win “Coal” Keegan has just landed in his latest foster home, with a big, noisy, slightly nosy family named the McKays. They seem eager to welcome Coal, but he’s wary of trusting them. So, he doesn’t tell them that he went for a walk with chalk in his pocket to cover a nearby street with his art. He doesn’t tell them that a neighbor found Coal drawing, pulled a gun on him, and fired it. He doesn’t tell them the police chased him. And he definitely doesn’t tell them that when everything went down, Coal somehow turned invisible.
But he did.
Now he has to figure out how. Is he a superhero? Some kind of mutant? A science experiment? Is that why he has no family of his own? As Coal searches for answers and slowly learns to control his invisibility, he turns to the McKay kids and friends both new and old for help. But they soon discover they’re not the only ones looking for a Black boy with superpowers, and the situation is far stranger—and more dangerous—than they ever could have expected.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After 13-year-old Coal Keegan's foster father experiences a mental health crisis, Coal is sent to live with new foster family the McKays. Though the adults try to make Coal feel welcome, he doesn't trust them yet, and is still smarting from the last time he thought he'd found a forever home. His new situation sours further when, during Coal's trek to make a chalk memorial of Allana Hastings, a Black woman killed by law enforcement, he's threatened at gunpoint and chased by police—and the only reason he escapes is by inexplicably turning invisible. After confiding in his best friend, the boys decide to investigate Coal's newfound powers. Could their existence be linked to his absent family? And what role does the mysterious company Mirror Tech Industries play in all this? Baptiste (Jumbies) utilizes close third-person narration to sensitively explore Coal's fears and frustrations surrounding his experiences in the foster care system as well as issues of racism, police brutality, and mental health. The inclusion of sympathetic and well-drawn supporting characters heightens the stakes of this tightly plotted sci-fi thriller. Most characters cue as Black or brown. Ages 10–up.
