LEX LUTHOR JOKES, ANYONE? Menomonie author Kelly McCullough’s latest book is School for Sidekicks.

With blockbuster superhero movies pouring out faster than you can heat up the popcorn, oversaturation is a genuine concern. And yet even with all the Marvel and DC TV shows and the endless super-powered sequels, Menomonie author Kelly McCullough has managed, with his recently published School for Sidekicks, to bring a generation of youngsters something new. It’s not just his verbal spin on accepted terminology (e.g., heroes into “Masks” and villains into “Hoods”), nor is it just an intriguing plotline that even kept this adult reader guessing all the way through. There’s just something special about it, and starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus serve to echo this sentiment.

While School for Sidekicks may be McCullough’s first book intended for children, he already has two successful book series (Webmage and Fallen Blade) under his belt. And as a self-described third-generation science fiction and fantasy fan, he knows what it is to grow up with wonder in your heart and impossible landscapes flittering behind your eyes. Writing a children’s book has always been in the plans for McCullough: “My love of books started when I was a kid,” he said, “and I’d always hoped to be able to pay that forward somehow.”

The book stars 13-year-old Evan Quick, a kid obsessed with Masks and Hoods who checks every day to see if he’s gotten his powers. Turns out he’s one of the lucky few, and his dramatic first experience with his Mask abilities ends up pitting him against one of the most notorious Hoods of all time. With his new metahuman status, Evan’s life is flipped upside down, and he’s quickly enrolled in a school for kids like him. But being one of the lucky few is more loaded than Evan could have ever imagined: from governmental injustice and super-powered battles to the problems of fitting in and getting parents to understand, Evan’s got his hands full.

Don’t mistakenly attribute the mature themes within the book (such as a Mask dealing with alcoholism or a young genderfluid shapeshifter named Blurshift) to McCullough’s inexperience with writing children’s literature. The move is a calculated one. According to McCullough, “Part of that is probably coming out of having gone to the St. Paul Open School, from first to 12th grade. ... If you’re a kid and you ask me a question or tell me about your interests, I’m going to treat you with seriousness and respect, and that’s how I want to write for children as well.” The more mature issues in the book are handled tastefully, not intentionally as lessons but acting as them nevertheless. All people, from the metahuman to the all-too-human, deserve and require compassion and respect.

For an author who has admitted to wanting to write travelogues for worlds that don’t exist, McCullough’s dedication to world-building is keenly felt in this newest piece. If you’re not careful you’ll find yourself getting lost in the politics of metahumans or wishing to sit in on more of Evan’s “Combat with Dishware” classes. From relatable characters in unbelievable situations to one-liners that will make you alternate between laughter and lighthearted groans, School for Sidekicks has a lot to offer and is a definite must for those fanciful children in our lives.

School for Sidekicks, was published by Feiwel & Friends, a division of Macmillan. Learn more about the book and its author at www.kellymccullough.com.