Battle for the Shadow Sword: Series 1 Book 1

By Author / Illustrator

Adam Blade

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781408343517

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

13-07-2017

Synopsis

X-Men meets Beast Quest at the school for superheroes! An epic new adventure series from bestselling author Adam Blade - with amazing comic-book style illustrations.

Welcome to Hero Academy! Join Jack and your other new classmates at this secret school, where the lessons are more exciting than Maths and PE. When a portal from the evil underground realm of Noxx is discovered beneath the school, Team Hero needs your powers. The next invasion is upon us ...

There are FOUR thrilling adventures to collect in this series - don't miss out! Battle for the Shadow Sword; Attack of the Bat Army; Reptile Reawakened; and The Skeleton Warrior

And don't forget Adam Blade's other series: Beast Quest and Sea Quest

Reviews

Jack Beacon is tired of being bullied for having scaly hands - but with these hands comes an unexpected power. When he uses his newfound super-strength to save the bullies' lives, he is recruited to Hero Academy - a secret school for kids with special abilities. But when an ancient evil reemerges, Jack and his new friends - Danny (super hearing) and Ruby (fire vision) - must fight an invading army of monsters to save the school... and the world. Having already conquered the children's fantasy book world, the publishing behemoth Adam Blade tackles the superhero genre in this new series, described by the publishers as 'X-Men meets Beast Quest' (I'd probably add a dash of Harry Potter in there too - why is the green school house always the evil one?!). Like the Beast Quest books, Team Hero is aimed squarely at providing exciting page turners for younger readers. The story is fast-paced and easy to read, with large print and comics-style illustrations throughout. The action is accompanied by touches of humour, often from Hawk - Jack's AI wearable smart-tech (think a sarcastic Siri in a BlueTooth earpiece). There's nothing particularly original here, but it's all wrapped up in an engaging and accessible package. The Team Hero books probably won't have a wide readership in my secondary school (most of my students seem to have grown out of Beast Quest by the time they get to Year 8), but could be good to read with small groups of reluctant readers. With my students, I would recommend this book to younger reluctant readers - especially superhero fans and comics readers. 176 pages (including bonus content and Book 2 sneak peak) / Ages 7+ / Reviewed by Daniel Katz, school librarian.