Stuntboy, in the Meantime

By: Jason Reynolds

Narrated by: Guy Lockard, Nile Bullock, Angel Pean, James Fouhey, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, Chanté McCormick, Lamarr Gulley, DePre Owens

WINNER OF THE 2023 AUDIE AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE!
NAMED A 2023 ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S RECORDING!

An Odyssey Children’s Award winner
A Schneider Family Award Honor Book for Middle Grade

From Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!

But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.

All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.

Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.

Critic reviews

"With endless energy, verve, and style, Guy Lockard is a total superstar narrating this middle-grade novel about Portico Reeves, aka Stuntboy."

"This adaptation is a special and unique audio experience, and along with Jason Reynolds's smart, funny, empathetic writing that meets kids where they are, it's guaranteed to catch and keep the attention of even the most reluctant reader or listener."

Best Battle of the Books book

My 11 year old listened and followed along with the book and fell in love immediately. This is a great story and my son loved the narrator and sound effects. He’s hooked…

The meantime and the frets

Liked because sometimes I get the frets. Liked Zola and glad Herbert became their friend!

Very Good

Absolutely captured the feelings and anxiety kids feel when parents are separating/divorce. The need for friends and families around them to support them through it. Very Entertaining! Kids will love it!

One of the best!

I have never heard such a fun an engaging audiobook! Kudos to the entire cast from bringing to life such a wonderful story.

LOVED THE ENDING TO BE CONTINUED

My son loved how it ended. It gave him time to guess about what happened next. We loved the reader! Awesome voice.