Disney’s The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence by Stan Lee and Stuart Moore will take you on an international trip across the world with Steven, a Chinese-American teenager who is on a school trip to Hong Kong and finds himself in a world filled with supernatural forces and adventure.
You may be familiar with Stan Lee from his work on Marvel Comics such as Spiderman, X-Men, The Avengers, and The Fantastic Four. Convergence is the first of 3 books in the Zodiac Legacy trilogy. I received a copy of this book from Parragon Publishing in exchange for my honest review.
You will see the connection in this book as it reads like a graphic novel. There are frequent monochrome illustrations by Andie Tong throughout.
In this book you’re introduced to Steven, and will follow him as he is introduced to the various characters over the first half of the book. Each character has a magical superpower that is related to one of the Chinese zodiac elements. Steven is fighting for the good side, Led by Jaasmine and Carlos. And of course there is also an evil side led by Maxwell and his gang.
Maxwell wants to rule the world and hold all of the superpowers himself. Now Steven and his group must travel around the world seeking out others who have been gifted these superpowers so that they can join together to fight Maxwell and save the planet.
The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence (affiliate link) is a 468-page hard cover book (also available in soft cover, Kindle, and MP3 CD) is aimed at children between the ages of 9 – 12. I’m not sure if it’s quite appropriate yet for the lower end of this scale, but children in the middle grades and up may enjoy it.
I know that many children, boys in particular, don’t like to read. Because this is a Stan Lee book and has lots of comic-book style illustrations, it may just encourage them to read more for pleasure. And with a strong female lead and a subtle love interest, this may also appeal to girls.
And for teachers and parents, there is also a downloadable teachers’ guide you can find on this page.
The superhero genre isn’t usually my forte (I know – how can that possibly be with a house full of little and big superhero fanatics), and it did take me some time to ‘get into’ this book. However, once all of the characters were introduced (including one from right here in Northern Ireland), i did want to see how everything turned out.
The ending wrapped up the loose ends nicely so that this book can be read on its own. It also sets everything up for the next book in the series.
Which brings me to the question: if you were a Chinese zodiac character, which would you like to be, and what would be your superpower?
