About this item
Hidden Figures meets Wonder Woman in this action-packed, comic-inspired adventure about a brilliant girl puzzler who discovers she's part of a superhero team!Josie O'Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more - like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can't fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government. After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she's a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Fantomah to Zenobia to the Black Cat. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed into the newest (and youngest!) superheroes in town. As the girls' abilities slowly begin to emerge, they learn that their skills will be crucial in thwarting a shapeshifting henchman of Hitler, and, just maybe, in solving an even larger mystery about the superheroes who've recently gone missing. Inspired by remarkable real-life women from World War II - the human computers and earliest programmers called "the ENIAC Six" - this pulse-pounding adventure features bold action, brave thinking, and an empowering belief that each one of us has the stuff it takes to be a superhero.
About the Author
Chicago children's author Kate Hannigan writes fiction and nonfiction for young readers. A former newspaper journalist, she loves listening to people's stories and digging deep into research. Her newest titles are the nonfiction graphic novel THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE: RISING FROM THE ASHES (First Second) and THE LEAGUE OF SECRET HEROES series (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin) , a historical fantasy featuring three comic-book loving kids who discover they have superpowers and team up with remarkable women from World War II who were doing their own heroic deeds - the first computer programmers, code-crackers, WASP pilots, and spies. CAPE, Book 1 in the series has the young heroes teaming up with the real-life ENIAC Six mathematicians who programmed the computer that launched the modern technology age. It received the 2020 Oklahoma Book Award and was a 2019 Parents' Choice Foundation Recommended Award Winner. MASK, Book 2, includes brilliant real-life code-crackers Elizebeth Friedman and Genevieve Grotjan, as well as heroic spy Noor Khan. And BOOTS, Book 3, features trail-blazing women pilots like Willa Brown, Janet Harmon, Jacqueline Cochran, and WASP Jane Doyle, who Kate was lucky enough to interview when she was 96!Kate enjoys visiting classrooms, whether in-person or on-screen. Go to KateHannigan.com to book for your school.Kate's history-mystery novel THE DETECTIVE'S ASSISTANT (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) received the 2016 Golden Kite Award for best fiction from the SCBWI, was a 2019 California Young Reader Medal nominee, and was a Booklist Editor's Choice pick for 2015, a Chicago Public Library "Best of the Best" book, Bank Street College's 2016 Best Books, winner of a 2015 Nerdy Book Award from the Nerdy Book Club, Amelia Bloomer Project 2016 List, as well as A Mighty Girl's "Top Pick for Tweens and Teens." Kate's books have been placed on the Illinois Reading Council's "Illinois READS" state lists for multiple years. THE DETECTIVE'S ASSISTANT also made the State of Maryland's Black-Eyed Susan Book Award list and was the Spring 2018 NIU Steam selection for Northern Illinois University.Kate's nonfiction picture book biography A LADY HAS THE FLOOR: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights (Boyds Mills Press) received a Society of Midland Authors honor, was named to Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best" list, a Rhode Island Book Award nominee, A Mighty Girl Best of 2018 selection, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and earned four starred reviews. Her three-book CUPCAKE COUSINS series (Disney-Hyperion) was also names to the Illinois READS list and CPL's "Best of the Best."Visit Kate online at KateHannigan.com.
