Portico Reeves, a ten-year-old Black boy, lives in a large apartment building that he likens to a castle, full of quirky characters he loves and appreciates. His best friend, Zola, lives there, too. Portico and Zola both love the same superhero television show, and Portico has a superhero alter ego, Stuntboy. His mission is to preserve the health and well-being of others in his building by performing stunts that either distract or diffuse a situation. For example, when he spots an elderly neighbor about to tumble down the stairs, Portico jumps in and takes the fall for him. Lately Portico’s parents have been arguing a lot over various possessions, and soon they’ll be moving into two different apartments, one upstairs and one down. Portico has anxiety, which he refers to as “the frets.” He’s a sensitive boy who worries a lot about others; he also trying to steer clear of a bully in the building, Hector Singletary the Worst. Portico’s superhero status is enhanced and enlarged by Raúl the Third’s comic-style illustrations which zigzag throughout nearly every page of the book. The over-the-top humor of the superhero story buzzes along on top of two more serious underlying subplots—Portico’s anxiety and his parents’ pending divorce—in an engaging story with a lot of heart. (Ages 7-10)

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.