Boy 2.0 #1

Win “Coal” Keegan has just landed in his latest foster home, with a big, noisy, slightly nosy family named the McKays. They seem eager to welcome Coal, but he’s wary of trusting them. So, he doesn’t tell them that he went for a walk with chalk in his pocket to cover a nearby street with his art. He doesn’t tell them that a neighbor found Coal drawing, pulled a gun on him, and fired it. He doesn’t tell them the police chased him. And he definitely doesn’t tell them that when everything went down, Coal somehow turned invisible.  But he did.   

Now he has to figure out how. Is he a superhero? Some kind of mutant? A science experiment? Is that why he has no family of his own? As Coal searches for answers and slowly learns to control his invisibility, he turns to the McKay kids and friends both new and old for help. But they soon discover they’re not the only ones looking for a Black boy with superpowers, and the situation is far stranger—and more dangerous—than they ever could have expected.   

From the very first page, readers are pulled into Coal’s life, which is full of mystery and danger. Being thrown into a new foster home would be difficult enough, but Coal is also in danger because he is Black. From the start, Boy 2.0 reminds readers that young Black people have a lot to fear—including the police. Despite being abandoned by his mother, living with strangers, and chased by the cops, Coal isn’t cynical. Instead, he desperately wants to understand his new “superpower” and discover why his mother abandoned him. Readers will relate to Coal’s struggle to understand himself and find a place where he belongs. 

Luckily, Coal has always been able to rely on his friend Door, who adds humor and heart to the story. In addition to Door, Coal begins to trust his new foster family. The kids band together and travel to Mirror Tech’s doors, a company that is conducting military experiments in genetic modification. Soon, Coal learns that he may be a product of one of the experiments, and now Mirror Tech and the military want Coal in custody. This adds suspense and shines a light on real-life issues such as global warming, cloning, genetic modifications, and the dangers that face all Black boys. 

Boy 2.0 is an action-packed story full of plot twists that will leave readers unable to put the book down. The mystery around Coal’s birth is compelling, but the characters give the story heart. He is surrounded by a group of interesting and likable characters who walk into danger with him. Unlike many books, Boy 2.0 showcases a villain that isn’t completely evil—instead, readers are left to wonder if the villain truly wants to help Coal solve the mystery of his power or if he wants to exploit Coal. Although Coal learns more about his heritage, the ambiguous ending sets up the next book in the series but still leaves the reader smiling as Coal realizes the power of friendship and family. Find your next adventure by reading the Jack and the Geniuses Series by Bill Nye & Gregory Mone and the Wild & Chance Series by Allen Zadoff. 

Sexual Content  

• None 

Violence  

• Coal reads an article about Allana, a black woman who was killed during a traffic stop. The article doesn’t appear in the text. 
• Coal’s former foster parent, Tom, has a mental disorder. Coal heard him yelling. Tom “said I should run, that they were coming to get me. . . His eyes were wild, looking in all directions like somebody was going to pop out of the bushes. And he started screaming that I needed to go. . . He pulled out a knife.” No one was injured, but Tom was put in a psychiatric facility.  
• Coal was using chalk to draw in the middle of the road when a man pointed a gun at him. “As the chalk fell from his hand and hit the ground, Coal heard the crack of the gun. It was louder than he expected.” Coal runs away, frightened but uninjured. 
• Coal’s mother tells a story about her uncle Saul, who lived in Montgomery, Alabama pre-civil rights. In the Jim Crow South, “successful Black people would find themselves lynched, their businesses burned, their families broken from terror and loss.”  
• Uncle Saul knew a mob was coming to burn his shop. Saul watched as the mob appeared. “He knew if he ran, it would be torture first, and then murder.” Saul was saved, but “the mob broke everything in that shop and then walked off.” 
• Saul’s son, Jonas, “was walking home from school when a bunch of white boys started to pelt him with stones. . . He started running. But they were bigger and faster, and he skidded down a slope to a little rivulet.” The boys didn’t find him. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Coal’s foster mom gives him melatonin “to help [him] relax and fall asleep.” 
• Tom’s previous foster parent had a mental illness, and “he was on medication for a long time and that seemed to help.” 

Language  

• Profanity is used rarely. Profanity includes crap, shit, and hell. 
• Coal calls his friend a jerk. 
• Coal’s foster brother calls a man “Dr. Jerkface.” 

Supernatural 

• After getting shot at, Coal ran. When he sees cops, he is terrified and runs away from them. Even though the police are right beside Coal, they don’t see him. After the police leave, Coal “looked at his palms to check for scrapes and dirt. Only there were no palms. Or arms. Or a torso. His pants were standing on their own.” Somehow, Coal had become invisible. 
• Being able to turn invisible is a hereditary trait in Coal’s family.  

Spiritual Content  

• Coal’s mother tells a story about her uncle Saul. When in danger from a mob, “he put his hands together, and he prayed. He prayed that he would be safe, that he would be covered by the blood of Jesus, that somehow he would be spared what he knew was coming.” 
• When the mob passed Saul, “he felt like he was burning, so he opened his eyes. . .” He had turned invisible. “Uncle Saul figured it was the Lord who saved him.”  
• Saul’s son, Jonas, was in danger and prayed. He turned invisible but thought he was just covered in mud and debris. Jonas’ father “gave him a flogging on the spot for saying that and not believing that, once again, it was the Lord. Jonas went on to become a preacher. . .I think he believed his father would have found a way to come back from the grave and flog him again if he didn’t. Becoming a preacher, he said, kept his father’s ghost at bay.”