SuperKids: Young Heroes in Action

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Jeremy Rosenberg was 12 years old when he deliberately jumped from a
galloping horse to rescue his father, who was being dragged by another
horse. Stanley Houle and his friend Earl Okemow were only 8 years old
when they risked their lives to save a toddler and his infant brother
from a burning cabin. Amelia Peter-Paul was 11 years old when she
suffered 26 stab wounds while shielding her 67-year-old grandmother from
three separate attacks by a deranged person wielding a pair of scissors.


“What is a hero?” Leslie Garrett asks in this collection of
true-life exploits. Garrett goes on to define a hero as someone “who
takes a stand,” and profiles 12 of them in this book. All are young
people who did something extraordinary, but not all of the feats
required someone’s life to be on the line. For example, 9-year-old
Michael Weber is included because he overcame one of the most common
human fears—public speaking—to become a preteen sports announcer at
the local radio station, and Vanessa Ann Nelson and Jesse Anderson took
on bureaucracy and public apathy to build something positive for their
community.

Garrett’s prose is fast-paced and exciting to read. Hers is one of
the few positive voices crying in a wilderness of general pessimism
about the young people of today. Recommended.