The Unforgettable Logan Foster

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Peters, Shawn. The Unforgettable Logan Foster

January 4th 2022 by HarperCollins

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

**Apologies for posting this so far in advance of the publication date. With all of the book supply chain issues, there were very few December titles, but a lot of January ones, so I've just posted the books in the order in which they were read.**

Logan has spent most of his life in the El Segundo Transitional Orphanage, after he was abandoned as an infant. He apparently had a brother, and some of the book is addressed to this sibling he has never met. Logan lives with a variety of challenges, including Developmental Coordination Disorder and eiditic memory, and is on the Austism Spectrum. This combination has made it diffictult to place him in foster care, but he is hopeful when Gil and Margie want to provide him with a home and family. They seem new at this, but mean well, and Logan starts to settle in, even meeting neighbor Elana, who goes to the high school he will attend. Things go well at first, although his new foster parents seem a bit odd and quirky, but when they are at a comic book store in Los Angeles, things get weird. Logan is a fan of comic books and comic book superheroes, but is unprepared to find out that his foster parents are really Quicksilver Siren and Ultra-Quantum, and that they worked with MASC. (Multinational Authority for Superhuman Control) MASC is also a bit surprised to learn that Gil and Margie have taken in a child; they plan to wipe his memory and return him to the foster care system. With the help of Dr. Chrysler, Logan learns the history of MASC and all about why comic books and super heroes made it into the mainstream media after World War II, and is surprised to find out that some of what he has read about has a basis in reality, although some of the comic books are pure fabrication. When Necros, an archenemy who has been causing many problems, appears to be on the rise, Logan gets drawn into the battle that his parents are facing. Will he be able to help save the day... and his new family?

Strengths: This was a fast paced book with lots of action and adventure that also dealt with the issue of families and dealing with challenges. Logan, despite his difficult past, is positive and tries to make the best of a number of unusual situations that come his way. There aren't a lot of books that deal with eidetic memory (other than de los Santos and Teague's Connect the Stars and Duble's Madame Tussaud's Apprentice: An Untold Story of Love in the French Revolution), and I liked the idea that Logan had his own "super power", just like his foster parents. The backstory about superheroes and comic books was VERY clever, and I enjoyed that quite a bit. Superhero books always have a small but strong fan base, so it's good to be able to add some to my collection every once in a while. 

Weaknesses: I feel like the story with the brother might be addressed in a sequel, but wasn't addressed in this book as much as I would have expected. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for middle grade readers who want a twist on super hero tales and who enjoyed Hannigan's The League of Super Heroes, and Borba's The Midnight Brigade. If you want to give this as a gift, be sure to include King and Paprocki's The Big Book of Superheroes. You can wrap them both in a cape!