‘Miles Morales’ by Jason Reynolds

Miles Morales is a 16-year-old from Brooklyn who lives a secret identity as Spider-Man. His father knows Miles' secret, as does his best friend Ganke, who rooms with Miles at a boarding school.

Lately, Miles’ “spidey-sense,” which warns him of imminent danger, has been going haywire in the class of a history professor who has a romantic view of slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Slavery, according to Mr. Chamberlain, was “the building block of our great country,” and the U.S.’s enslavement of criminals is what keeps the country alive.

Miles is also plagued by disturbing dreams of fighting a blurry assailant that becomes his uncle Aaron, but then becomes ... something else.
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Miles is worried that he comes from a “criminal bloodline,” and that at 16, he’s the age when his father and uncle first embarked on crime.

(Miles’ father turned his life around when he met Miles’ mother, but Miles’ uncle Aaron continued a life of crime and is directly responsible, through his choice of break-in targets, for Miles becoming Spider-Man.)

Even if Miles isn’t a criminal, he risks circumstances and the attitudes of society forcing him into the role. He leaves his job at the campus convenience store to attend a poetry reading that was organized by a girl he has a crush on. Some merchandise goes missing from the store, and Miles is accused of stealing it.

My introduction to author Jason Reynolds was via as brave as you, which was the 2017 middle-school recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award. (As a person who possesses an “invisible” disability, I closely follow this award, which recognizes artistic portrayals of the “disability experience.”)

Disclosure of material connection: My taxes support local libraries’ acquisition of this and other resources. I consider the access I enjoy to be a “priceless” return on my investment.