Book Trailer Premiere: Cape by Kate Hannigan

Nazis suck. Books full of female kid superheroes defeating Nazis do not suck. Ipso facto, we should have more of them. Yet to the best of my knowledge, and I could be wrong in this, there really aren’t a ton of female-kid-superheroes-banding-together-to-defeat-the-forces-of-evil middle grade novels out there. Does this represent a gap in the marketplace? It does. Is there a remedy at hand? There is. And that remedy goes by the name of Kate Hannigan.

Now you may know Ms. Hannigan by previous books she’s done like Cupcake Cousins or A Lady Has the Floor. She’s switching gears a bit with Cape. It’s launching a series called “The League of Secret Heroes” and publishing with Simon & Schuster/Aladdin on August 6th. Kate was kind enough to share with me some background to the book. Get ready for Wonder Woman meets The Imitation Game.

CAPE is set during World War II and features three girls who are comic-book obsessed and amazing puzzlers. They answer an ad calling for puzzle-solvers to help in the war effort, but they’re rejected. No worries, as it turns out a secret agency is interested in their mad skills, and the girls quickly discover they have superpowers like the superheroes they adore.

The book features graphic novel elements, which I hope appeals to kids. I did a ton of research into the earliest comic book heroines who came before Wonder Woman, so it felt organic to pull in some “panels” to help tell the story.

While researching early superheroines, I also became fascinated by the REAL-LIFE women of WWII who were using their own particular superpowers: the earliest computer programmers, brilliant code-crackers, WASP pilots, and incredible spies. So in each of the three books, the superhero girls work with some real historical figures to beat the bad guys (evil Nazis). Lots of material in the back matter/author’s note.
It’s girl-powered superhero fun with the meat-n-potatoes of historical research, plus graphic novel elements. Historical fantasy with a mystery.

More to the point, it appears to be raking in the starred professional reviews.

And so, without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen I present to you . . . .

CAPE

Trailer provided by Rachel Ruiz and her production company. Many thanks to Kate for the reveal.

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