{"product_id":"hero-isbn-9780142419601","title":"Hero","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the #1 bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHeat\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTravel Team\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMillion-Dollar Throw.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eZach Harriman knew that his dad was something of a hero, a man trusted by the president to solve international crises at a moment's notice. Suddenly people are telling him he has powers - people who know much more about his father than Zach ever did. But there are the Bads, who appear out of nowhere and attack him and his best friend. One thing is clear: he can do things ordinary people cannot. Like fend off grown men as though he possesses the strength of a hundred. Like sense when evil is about to strike. And evil is about to strike in a very big way. Zach Harriman is his father's son. And he, too, is a hero.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Every kid wants to be a superhero. Well, be careful what you wish for - you might get it. This is the amazing story of Zach Harriman and nothing Mike Lupica has written will thrill you like this.\"\u003cbr\u003e - William Goldman, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Princess Bride\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eHero\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[N]othing Mike Lupica has written will thrill you like this.” –William Goldman, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Princess Bride\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Sportswriter and novelist Lupica offers a change of pace from his previous sports stories for younger readers, deftly reworking the traditional superhero origin story into a moving tale of adolescent growth.” –\u003ci\u003ePublisher’s Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[T]he stage is set for a sequel to what looks like a surefire hit.” –\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMike Lupica \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of multiple bestselling books for young readers, including \u003ci\u003eQB 1\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHeat, Travel Team, Million-Dollar Throw, and The Underdogs. \u003c\/i\u003eHe  has carved out a niche as the sporting world’s finest storyteller.  Mike lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. When  not writing novels, \u003cb\u003eMike Lupica \u003c\/b\u003ewrites for New York's \u003ci\u003eDaily News,\u003c\/i\u003e appears on ESPN's \u003ci\u003eThe Sports Reporters \u003c\/i\u003eand hosts \u003ci\u003eThe Mike Lupica Show \u003c\/i\u003eon ESPN Radio. You can visit Mike Lupica at mikelupicabooks.com\u003cb\u003e1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTHERE were four thugs, total gangsters, in front of the house with their rifles and their night-vision goggles. Four more in back. No telling how many more inside.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSo figure a dozen hard guys at least, protecting one of the worst guys in the world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNot one of them having a clue about how much trouble they were really in, how badly I had them outnumbered.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHired guns, in any country, never worried me. The Bads? They were the real enemy, worse than any terrorists, even if I was one of the few people alive who knew they existed.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEven my boss, the president of the United States, didn’t know what we were really up against, how much he really needed me.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen he talked about our country fighting an “unseen” threat, he didn’t know how true that really was.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen my son, Zach, was little, I used to tell him these fantastic bedtime stories about the Bads, and he thought I was making them up. I wasn’t.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe snow was falling hard now, bringing night along with it. Not good. Definitely not good. I didn’t need a blizzard tonight, not if I wanted to get the plane in the air once I got back to the small terminal near the airport in Zagreb. Which was only going to happen if I could get past the guards, get inside, and then back out with the guy I’d come all this way for. It meant things going the way they were supposed to, which didn’t always happen in my line of work.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMy official line of work? That would be special adviser to the president. A title that meant nothing on nights like this. On assignments like this. The real job description was fixing things, things that other people couldn’t, saving people who needed saving, capturing\u003cbr\u003epeople who needed to be stopped. Dispensing my own brand of justice.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSometimes I had help, people watching my back.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNot tonight. Tonight I was on my own. Not even the president knew I was here. Sometimes you have to play by your own rules.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eOn this remote hill in northern Bosnia, near where the concentration camps had been discovered a few years before, I had managed to finally locate a Serb war criminal and part-time terrorist named Vladimir Radovic. He was known to governments around the world\u003cbr\u003eand decent people everywhere as Vlad the Bad because of all the innocent people he’d slaughtered when he was in power, before he was on the run.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTo me, he was known by a code name, which I thought fit him much better:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe Rat.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI was here to catch the Rat.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMe, Tom Harriman. About to blow past the guns and inside a cabin that had been turned into an armed fortress.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAlmost time now. I didn’t just feel the darkness all around me, as if night had fallen out of the sky all at once. I could feel another darkness coming up inside me, the way it always did in moments like this, when something was about to happen. When I didn’t have to keep my own bad self under control. When I could be one of the good guys but not have to behave like one.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe me that still scares me.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTime to go in and tell the Rat his ride was here.","brand":"Viking Books for Young Readers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303919472869,"sku":"NP9780142419601","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780142419601.jpg?v=1767728978","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/hero-isbn-9780142419601","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}