3.5
Stuntboy, in the Meantime
ByPublisher Description
A Schneider Family Award Honor Book for Middle Grade
From Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!
Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!
But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.
All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.
Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.
From Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!
Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!
But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.
All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.
Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStuntboy, in the Meantime Reviews
3.5
“As an adult and a parent, reading this book from the lens of a young person. This book was cleverly written. The main character, Portico Reeves is experiencing a difficult time in his family. But Portico also has a secret.... he's a superhero! His name is Stuntboy. He and his best friend Zola live next door to each other. They both have superpowers and together they save their friends and neighbors.
But after reading this, you'll realize that not everyone recognizes Portico's special gifts. His parents barely notice it. He just hopes to save everyone around him.
I can't wait to read the second book to see what adventures await for Portico and Zola!!”
“I absolutely love this book. It is a good way of getting kids in the mindset of a divorce and how to understand that things does happen for a reason but you still get good things at the end of the day. It also helps kids understand that kids their age or any age goes through that too and that they also feel just the way you would feel if you're parents were getting a divorce. I believe that this inspires kids to be truthful and optimistic even when things are not going the way you would want them to go. I mean If I was in this situation I would feel the same way because for one I'm young and don't understand certain things yet. Two I wouldn't want my parents to split up because that would impact me and my emotions too. And third because I wouldn't understand how to react to certain things in certain moments in my life due to that situation going on In my household.. but I think this is a very well thought out and planned book too, and I would also like to thank Jason for tell us his story from when he was younger and for making it easier for kids to understand and to learn that everyone goes through thing for a reason either you like it or not. Thank you Jason and thank you KribabyK for the recommendation of this book. -Ahshar 📖”
About Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, a Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu, and Coach); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Stuntboy, In-Between Time; Miles Morales Suspended; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); Twenty-Four Seconds from Now...; and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. His debut picture book, There Was a Party for Langston, won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
Other books by Jason Reynolds
Raúl the Third
Raúl the Third is the illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Stuntboy, in the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds. He’s also a three-time Pura Belpré Award winner for ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to The Market! and his Lowrider picture book series written by Cathy Camper, the first of which, Lowriders in Space, also won the Texas Bluebonnet. Raúl is also the author and illustrator of ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat and ¡Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He’s also contributed to the SpongeBob Comics series. He lives outside of Boston.
Other books by Raúl the Third
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