Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons, #4) by Matt de la Pena
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on March 5, 2019
ISBN: 039954965X
Pages: 336
Genres: Fantasy
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads

The fourth installment in the DC Icons series of origin story tales, Dawnbreaker tells us of young Clark Kent’s discovery of his powers and struggles with how to use or not use them.  In Smallville, townsfolk have started to disappear. Clark and Lana are noticing a disturbing trend in that all the missing seem to be minorities. With the help of some familiar (paging Lex Luthor) and new characters, Clark and Lana go about trying to solve the mystery and set things in Smallville right again.  While perhaps not as exciting a tale as the other Icons stories, de la Peña does an excellent job of bringing Smallville into current times. Issues included are immigration, discrimination in the form of a potential stop and search law, genetic engineering, and small farmer hardships. Direct correlations between this story and current events are easily made.  De la Peña’s Luthor is given a unique role in this story as a side character who, while we’re waiting for him to show his true evil side, is actually helpful at times, and only slightly questionable. He’s more of a privileged rich kid than a mastermind. His introduction to Clark screams for a sequel. While not the strongest in the series, Dawnbreaker is eminently readable and will be of great interest to DC/Superman fans.  Recommended for grades 6-12.

Reviewed by Kara Reiman, Maine State Library