SIDEKICKS: The Transfer Student

Terry Highland, a teenager endowed with super strength, enrolls in Shuster Academy, a high school for aspiring superhero sidekicks that combines academics with combat training. Shuster is full of kids who can fly, move at the speed of sound and walk through walls. But the main difference between Shuster and other mutant training camps is that a diploma from Shuster provides young superhero wannabes with a learner's permit to use their powers and train with a professional. All this is very important at a time when superheroes must have a license to operate. Like any adolescent institution, Shuster isn't without its misfits, and Terry's one of them. The new girl in school, Terry finds herself on the verge of failing phys ed while breaking all sorts of rules, such as using her powers outside of class and missing curfew. Written in the universal language of youth trapped in high school hell, this book's heartfelt, smart-ass dialogue deftly captures the socially awkward feeling of trying to fit in while standing out. Miyazawa's ultra-hip, anime-inspired b&w drawings bring out the characters' detail, down to their tattoos. By filling his pages with activity and emotion, Miyazawa pulls the background to the forefront and lures the eye to every corner of the panel. This work is a fluid dance between sweetness and sass that will pull at the heartstrings of the awkward adolescent within every reader. (July)