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320 pp.
| Atheneum/Dlouhy |
May, 2023 |
TradeISBN 9781665918466$19.99
|
EbookISBN 9781665918480$10.99
(2)
YA
Illustrated by
Zeke Peña.
In the previous installment (Miles Morales, rev. 9/17), sixteen-year-old Miles ("Boricua and Black and Brooklyn as hell") was bitten by a radioactive spider, became the latest Spider-Man, and defeated the Warden, head of an ancient white supremacist organization. Now he sits in In-School Suspension (ISS) for standing up to his racist history teacher, along with classmate Tobin Rogers, who is in ISS for removing books--Baldwin, Morrison, Angelou, Angie Thomas--from the school library. Even more weirdly, Tobin was eating the pages; all that were found were the books' spines. Add a termite infestation at school for an intriguing puzzle for Miles to solve. This sequel is more multilayered than the first installment, with action-packed digital drawings, Miles's first-person poems, and a third-person narrative all capturing a day in the life of Miles Morales--his neighborhood, his crush on Alicia Carson, his friendship with Ganke, and his conflicts with teachers. There is room, though, for a climactic action scene in the boys' bathroom, where a creepy monster is thrillingly unmasked.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 2023