The Adventures of Blue Avenger

An excellent book about a remarkable young hero, who is grappling with the old philosophical problem of free will. If every event has a cause, then how can we be free? And if we are not free, then how can we be held morally responsible? This book, more successful, I think, than the second in the series (though that was still far superior to most teen fiction out there), illustrates this problem extremely well at the same time as it introduces some very intriguing and likeable characters who face real world problems and solve them in real world ways, while managing at some level to feel like superheroes. While it touches on some themes (death and sex, both touched upon in a very sensitive and non-explicit fashion) that may be too mature for very young children, I think the book would be appropriate and enjoyable for anyone over 12 years old (and I mean anyone without age limit, since I bought this for my daughter and picked it up one night and couldn't put it down).

that a book on such a serious topic could be so much fun to read? If someone had come up to me and asked "Would you like to read a book about free will?", I probably would have just said "No way." But Blue Avenger turned out to be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. It all starts on his 16th birthday, when David Schumacher decides to change his name to Blue Avenger after a character he created. In doing so he becomes a unique sort of superhero, simply solving everyday problems, like finding the perfect lemon meringue pie recipe. (I tried it, and it really honestly doesn't weep.)There's plenty of humor along the way, as in the memorable condom-buying scene and classroom discussion. There's a romantic side, thanks to his close friend Omaha Nebraska Brown. There are small seemingly meaningless moments that come back in the end, somewhat like Harry Potter. And of course, there's the free will issue- it really makes you think without taking over the story or getting boring and technical. I knew very little about free will before reading this, but now I can honestly say I have an opinion on it.Is it realistic? Not really. But will it make you think and laugh out loud? You bet. And that's the whole point anyway.

Simply put, this is a wonderful young adult's novel. It's engaging, funny, and mysterious. The main character's actions reach out to anyone who ever wanted to change their life in some dramatic way, and be reborn into, to quote the bard, a brave new world. The novel also adresses social, family, and philosophical issues in such a way that you find yourself interested and thinking thoughtfully without realizing it. The story inspires young people to change what they don't like, including themselves. This is a fantastic book, and I recommend to anyone who wants an absorbing, touching and funny read.

I find it hard to believe that only a few reviewers gave this book 5 stars. I'm inclined to agree with the obviously youthful reader who declared, "This is the greatest book ever written!" It's not, of course -- but it's an awful lot of fun. Beautifully written, laugh-out-loud funny, sad but not painful, and brilliantly constructed, with as meaty a consideration of fate and free will as you are likely to find in a work of contemporary fiction. NOTE TO THE HIGHBROW CROWD: Ya don't have to use long sophisticated arguments to get the heart of a matter like this; if this book doesn't get you thinking about personal responsibility, then you probably aren't used to thinking much. NOT FOR KIDS UNDER 14, it contains some sexuality and vulgarity but comes down squarely on the conservative side of these issues. Everything you could ask for in a "young adult" novel; don't miss it.

This is a wonderful book, which is fairly well described by the reviews above. It is a kind of real-life fantasy, where the main character adopts a comic-book superhero persona and immediately starts living a comic-book superhero type existence, where he is instantly popular at school and nothing serious goes wrong. (In some ways, this book is like a teen version of Laurie Colwin's Happy All the Time. There is no traditional conflict, not among peers, not between kids and parents or teachers or society. There are tragedies, but they are all in the past.) The themes are mature: sexuality (a very sweet version of it), personal responsibility, the ways in which people advance themselves at a cost to others. The author is very ambitious, and not all of what she tries works, but a great deal does. One issue: my wife mistakenly bought this for our 10-year-old son, for whom it is clearly inappropriate. It is not so clear what group of kids should read it. Kids old enough to appreciate a condom-buying scene (a high point in the book that is clearly, if coyly, divorced from the conventional reasons for buying condoms) and smart enough to like the frequent philosophical discussions and ironic authorial intrusions will generally have moved beyond Young Adult fiction. They may resent the undercurrent of goody-goody preachiness (the protagonists predictably and enthusiastically opt for chastity; there is a lot of anti-vulgarity propaganda) and the odd reticence that produces a great deal of very unspecific talk about sex ("He pondered the difference between love and lust." "Their hormones were raging.") Basically, this is a book that has to fit into a narrow window of opportunity in which kids have enough interest and information to care about the themes but will find the coyness comforting. Also, although it is not a "girls' book" per se, girls will probably like it a lot more than boys - it is really a girls' fantasy about the perfect boyfriend.