Mike Nero and The Superhero School

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S MIKE NERO AND THE SUPERHERO SCHOOL ABOUT?
Mike Nero has had to leave his school, for reasons not explained—but we are told he's worried his new school would be like it, and it's suggested he didn't have friends there. But hopefully, that's going to change here.

His parents accompany him to the first day of school where he's met by the principal, Mr. Joseph, and taken on a tour around the school and where he meets a handful of his new classmates and peers.

Mike meets one child with Autism, a blind boy, a few deaf kids—and so on. He asks some questions of them, and gets answered by them or Mr. Joseph. Mike takes all this in the way you hope someone would (and too rarely see)—he's not just a good example, it turns out that Mike has challenges of his own to deal with.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS
I was impressed by the illustrations—they're the level of cute that you want in a Picture Book while the people look like people, not cartoons—and the illustrations are clear about the various challenges that these characters have. The colors are vibrant and realistic at the same time, too.

A couple of those sentences seem redundant, but I guess I'm trying to stress the nice combination and balance here.

I really appreciated when I went back through looking at the pictures how Stephen hinted at the reveal about Mike throughout but held off until the right moment to fully show it.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MIKE NERO AND THE SUPERHERO SCHOOL?
The twist that the book puts on the conditions and diagnoses the children have is that this equips them with superpowers—the students who use sign language are seen as having a special language, the blind boy has a “magic cane,” and so on. It helps Mike understand his new peers and frames the way Mr. Johnson wants him to think about his own challenges. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

I thought the moral was maybe laid on a little thick. But I'm not sure that's true, I doubt the target audience would agree with me—in fact, they might need it that thick. So I guess this is a warning for parents, be ready for this, but the kid you read this with won't mind.

This was a sweet read, I liked it and would encourage parents/teachers/etc. to grab this.