Spider-Man YA Novel Swings Into Action Next Month

I just found out something really cool. The Disney-owned Hyperion imprint is publishing a new young adult novel about the newest (and I'd say the best) Spider-Man, Miles Morales. Even better, it's being written by Jason Reynolds, a talented Black author. Reynolds is no stranger to quality storytelling, either-- last year his book "As Brave As You" won the Kirkus Prize last year and he's a previous winner of the Coretta Scott-King Award.

Seriously. This is a book you want to read. Pre-order it at your local indie bookstore or at Amazon. Request it at your local library. Get it in the hands of a teen you know. I got an advance reader copy and was blown away.

Reynolds' Spider-Man novel deals head-on with issues of race and class in Brooklyn, being a young biracial kid on scholarship, and how these influences shape his life as he also struggles to be a superhero. Even more so than in the comics, Miles Morales' Puerto Rican and Black backgrounds are implicitly referenced in the text and made important. It examines not just what being Miles Morales means for Spider-Man, but what being Spider-Man means for Miles Morales. It's been getting rave review from everyone from Kirkus Book Reviews to the co-creator of Miles Morales himself, Brian Michael Bendis.