Hero
by Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica is known for his outstanding sports novels for young adults.  With Hero he takes on a whole new genre--superheroes.  Zach Harriman and his parents live in an amazing apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  Zach can look across the street to Central Park, a place he loves better than any other.  Zach's dad is some sort of top secret trouble-shooter for the U.S. government, and answers to the President.  Very cool, except he's always gone, and Zach can't help being resentful.  Then, one day Zach just knows that his dad is dead, and he runs all the way home from school to learn that his father has died in a plane crash.  Zach knows something isn't right, because his dad was the best pilot on the planet.  Something is definitely suspicious.  
      Zach knows he won't be able to move on until he visits the site of his father's plane crash.  With the help of his best friend, Kate, he makes plans to take a bus out to the crash site.  Once there, strange things begin happening, including the appearance of an old man named Mr. Herbert, who seems to know all about Zach and his dad.  And he tells Zach that he has the magic, just like his father did.   At that moment, Mr. Herbert walks away fast, with Zach following.  And then, all of sudden, Zach finds himself back in New York City, though seconds before he had been three hours away.  So begins Zach's discovery of the magic within him.  He begins to exhibit more and more powers, and he just knows when he needs to leave the apartment for an encounter with the "bads."  He learns that he can trust very few people, even the ones he thought he knew the best.  Hero is a classic tale of good against evil, which just cries out for a sequel as Zach becomes more and more confident in his super abilities. 
Recommended.    ~Reviewed by Mrs. Sams