Secret Supers

What Happens When 'Differently-Abled' People Become 'Super-Abled'?

By: Andy Zach

Narrated by: Luke Castle

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Jeremy Gentle fell flat on his face at therapy. That was normal since he had cerebral palsy. But his new superpower wasn't normal. Then, things got weirder when his best friend Dan Elanga got a different superpower. But Dan was still blind.

Kayla Verdera and Aubrey Wilcosky, two girls in their middle-school special ed class, discovered they too had new superpowers. Kayla was mute and needed a walker. Aubrey lost two legs and used crutches. But they were as powerful as the boys. What should the four friends do?

Jeremy knew if the word got out, it'd be a media circus. Then, they started fighting crime as the Secret Supers. Who knew a disability could be a perfect disguise? No one would ever think of disabled kids as superheroes. But they ran into problems they never expected.

©2019 Jeffry J. Smith (P)2019 Jeffry J. Smith

Every kid wants to be a superhero.

Four differently-abled kids suddenly gain superpowers and use them to fight crime. How cool is that? Any kid would love to have powers. They used teamwork and demonstrated compassion for others. They also had a lot of fun.

The narration was a bit weird. All the voices sound really nasal. At first I laughed, then for about five minutes I thought they were cute, then I just found the voices annoying. Kids will probably not care about that. I imagine they'll just enjoy thinking about what they would do with superpowers.

I received a free copy of this audiobook.

An inspiring, entertaining and happy storty

This is a story filled with joy an overcoming obstacles. in these dark times an uplifting tale is needed with the the human spirit meeting the challenges of life with positive mind set and a bit of hard work. The fact that these children are "supers" in this story does not diminish the lesson it teaches. A must listen for young folks and their parents.

Everyone can be brave and heroic

I love that someone is writing fun superstories in which disabled and differently abled kids can see themselves as potentially brave and heroic. The story doesn’t just show them doing impossible things that fully abled people can’t even do; it shows them using their heads to solve problems and cooperating together to use their different gifts to change the world for the better. And it’s well told, with a youthful sounding narrator that highlights the 12-13 years of the characters.

I received this free audiobook and voluntarily left this honest review.

hard to listen to

this was an interesting concept, but the narrator was hard to stick with, the voices almost comic in their sound, and the recording sounding like it was mixed with a tape recorder

Great story, not so great narration

There’s so much awesome stuff happening in this book! I really enjoyed the story, especially the backbone of it. Each of these kids (Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey) has their own disability and when Jeremy stumbles upon a way to give each of them a super power, they still have to deal with real life. The super power doesn’t take away or negate their disability but it does give them an edge. Plus, they learn to work together as team, using their individual powers to boost each other. Just a fantastic premise for a story.

The story is definitely geared towards kids, as the plot is pretty straight forward and there’s little conflict among the characters. Our heroes already have a fight on their hands – just being accepted in regular society. In fact, the big hurdle in the book deals with that at their public school. I really liked how they pulled together to tackle the problem and how their efforts pulled in their friends, family, and community.

The end leaves us on a triumphant note as well as hinting as more to come. I hope this is just the start of a series. I think Jeremy needs to keep a close eye on his pet hamster. I kinda hope that hamster becomes the master mind. Ha! 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Luke Castle gets an A for effort but a C for product. Castle had a perfect voice for Jeremy, capturing the character’s young earnest voice. Castle’s female character voices need more femininity. Many of them sounded very cartoony. I appreciate Castle’s attempts at regional and foreign accents, but they were hit and miss or way over done (like the Georgia peach and the California valley girl). The pacing was a bit off too, often with long pauses in between chapters (at first, I thought my player had stalled). Castle does a good job capturing the various emotions of the characters. Other than the long pauses in between the chapters, there were no technical issues with the recording. 2.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Great book for the kids.

Pretty good Audiobook for the younger kids. My son thought he'd like to have Super Powers now too.

What can 4 Disable Children can do and will do!

Yes this is an audiobook for kids but I found it very interesting due to that is a good lesson for both children and adults handicapped or not. And that lesson if you want something so bad enough you are willing to work hard to get it or achieve a goal that everyone thinks you can not do. You have the following characters a above average boy, a black blind boy, a young girl who has lost her legs and finally a young girl who has lost the ability to speak or sing. I believe kids would really like this audible because the story is based both on their abilities and disabilities and how they learn from the disabilities but grow and learn as a person and the friendship between the four. When you have a battle to fight or someone is causing your problems when you have friends you can overcome the problem here was raising $100,000 to cover the shortage on the school year budget or all handicapped children would be bused to another school and maybe not be together. They raised the money by doing the impossible and proving everyone in the city that even though they are handicapped they gave a lots to offer and did not need to be separated from family and friends.
There is a lots more to this book and personally believe you would enjoy the book it brings a smile, a chuckle and a laugh as the story is told and you live the lives of four amazing and awesome handicapped kids.

This is truly amazing

This book is fantastic. It has a fantastic story line, great character development, but most of all, the narration was on point. Luke Castle deserves a Grammy, nay, an Emmy, for this reading. Everything from his impressions to his transitions, and everything in between. Truly an amazing book with top-tier narration. A+

Fun MG fiction

Mr Andy Zach has crafted a fun story of different-able kids becoming superheroes.

I don’t read much MG fiction, but it was a nice light read. It did feel at times that everything was too easily overcome and the kids only wear super suits once.

It was also interesting to hear what sounded like a middle grade student as the narrator. This had pros and cons for me. It worked for the kids, but some of his adult voices...

Overall, worth a listen, fun story, and likable characters.

Hard to get Past the Narrator

My 12 year old son listened to this one too and I really had to force him to finish it because the narrator was so nasal and just irritating. It really was hard to get past this narrator to enjoy the story... the story felt a little unfinished and abrupt in parts and it's just hsrd to the say if it was tge atory or the narrator. Overall the story has great potential and i great for the elementary and middle grade readers. I think I'm going to go back and read it myself to get a better scope and I'll update my review when I do. For now I say it's a really cute story but go for the ebook or hard copy. I'm on to book two because there's enough to really like about the story to give it a shot and it has a different narrator so... 🤞

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.