Look closely at the way Jason Reynolds describes how Portico feels when he is anxious: Which parts of his body are affected when he has the Frets? How does your body feel when you are anxious, worried, or afraid? What helps Portico feel better when he gets the Frets? What helps you when you are anxious?Ĥ. Explain the types of situations that cause Portico to get a case of the Frets. Which part of the definition do you think describes the community that is created by the residents of Skylight Gardens? Give examples of specific ways that they demonstrate that they care and look out for each other.ģ.

What does Portico love about living in Skylight Gardens? What does the fact that he calls it “The Castle” suggest about how he feels about his home? What do you love most about the place where you live?Ģ. Lately, that means protecting Zola from their archnemesis, Herbert Singletary the Worst, learning to tame his own anxiety attacks (the Frets), and trying to keep his mother and father’s fighting (which always reminds him of an episode of Super Space Warriors) from turning into an Explosion of Great Magnitude.ġ. As Stuntboy, he is the superhero who keeps all the other superheroes, and his fellow residents of Skylight Gardens (aka the Castle), safe. Portico Reeves has a secret identity that only his best friend Zola knows about. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all. Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too-as soon as he figures out how. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.Īll this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!īut his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too.

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes-like his parents and two best friends-stay super. A Schneider Family Award Honor Book for Middle Gradeįrom Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!

Stuntboy books