When Newbery Honor-winning author Derrick Barnes goes on school visits, he always tells young creators “never throw your work away,” because you might be able to use it in a future story. Holding on to his work has served him well throughout his career, and led to the creation of his first middle-grade novel in more than a decade, the cover of which is seen here for the first time.

The story took root in 2012, when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed while walking to the store for some snacks. Devastated, Barnes began wrestling with the many tragic dimensions of his death by writing a story set in a Philadelphia about a Black boy with superpowers who goes on a heroic quest. He contemplated the story for a long time and “couldn’t let go of” the character, while not quite finding the right narrative for him. In 2017, his first picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut won a Newbery Honor, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. Following that success, he wrote, among other books, the Kirkus Prize-winning I Am Every Good Thing and was co-author of the graphic novel Victory Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice, a National Book Award finalist. These acknowledgments “blew the doors open” for what he believed possible in his writing career, and he began shaping a new world for the character who would eventually become Henson Blayze.

The story is set in the Mississippi Delta, where football is king. In the primarily white town of Great Mountain, 13-year-old Henson has been a local hero since his Little League days because of his incredible athletic ability. Everyone is anticipating his entry into high school athletics and the glory he’ll bring to the town when he joins the team. “The town only sees him one way,” Barnes told PW. On one level, Henson enjoys the adulation. But being a witness to injustice during a life-changing local event causes him to reject the town’s expectations of him and his “awakening” begins, the author said. The story centers on “America’s fascination with the Black body,” Barnes added, and how Black boys are consigned to limited arenas for success such as labor, entertainment, or athletics. For Henson, transformation comes when he begins to see himself in multiple ways.

Like Martin, Barnes said, many Black boys are judged as older than their years because of their physical appearance. To the town, Henson is a “big, strong football player,” he said. “They have been looking at that boy differently from how they see their own 13-year-old boys.” To his family and those who know him best, he is “funny noble, and sweet. He has dreams of being someone great and making his parents proud,” the author added. For the character and the story, Barnes drew from his own experience as the father of four boys. He also cited Jerry Spinelli’s 1990 novel Maniac McGee as inspiration.

The book takes place over a two-week period, incorporating elements of myth, magic, and traditional tall tales and family history dating back to the origin story of Henson’s town, Barnes said. In his community, Henson has become a living legend, and telling his story made it possible for Barnes to incorporate unconventional elements, such as talismans and protective charms dating back hundreds of years.

The book’s cover was illustrated by Charles Chaisson, known for covers including Kekla Magoon’s novel How It Went Down and Slay by Brittney Morris. “He presented Henson as angelic—a golden child, just the way I imagined him,” Barnes said, adding that when he was growing up, his brother also nicknamed him the golden child of his family.

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze is “some of my best work,” the author said. He hopes all kids will be able to see themselves through reading the story and come away with the message that “even though you might think someone has it good, they may need a friend.” While he intended the book to be a “a love letter to Black boys and children,” the story is more universal. “I want all children to see themselves and know that they have a place in this world.”

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes. Viking, $17.99 Sept. 23 ISBN 9781984836755