Book Review: ‘The Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids’ Club’

Tween novel that parents will approve of

A new novel for tweens. (Courtesy of Sally Appert)

“The Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids’ Club” is a new young-teen book that parents will appreciate and kids will love.

The “three luckiest children at Blue Hollow Middle School” hardly knew each other at all. On one fateful day, however, they each received a mysterious letter from the same mysterious person. Its instructions were clear: They must keep the letter secret except from each other. This and the “supernormal” gifts that accompany the letter unite the trio in what they deem the “SACK Club” (the first letters of Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids) and in bonds of lasting friendship.

Sally Appert, who has occasionally written for The Epoch Times, is making her novel debut, and it’s just the kind of book that parents and young readers alike are hoping to find. The teen genre tends to be saturated with formulaic and often unsavory content. “The Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids’ Club” is not only a mouthful (ha!) but also a captivating, magical, and well-written story that its target audience will relate to and enjoy.

The three main characters, Cassie, Dayne, and Natasha are each carrying heavy burdens through their middle-school years. Cassie is going blind, Dayne’s family is struggling financially, and Natasha, who is a Chinese immigrant, wants to know what happened to her parents during the two years they went missing in their homeland.

After they receive their letters, they find themselves with capabilities they’ve certainly never known before and they’re not necessarily sure what to do with. Together they embark on a journey that forces each of them to face their troubles, their fears, and even their own flawed character. In hope of answers, they search for the author of the note amid the many pressures of middle-school life, of sudden “supernormal” abilities, and through a number of twists and turns along the way.

It is an adventure with heart, and readers will keep turning these pages.

Solidly written with well-developed characters and meaningful underlying themes, “The Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids’ Club” is a young-teen novel worth reading.

‘The Supernormal Ability Cookie Kids’ Club’ Cookie Kids’ Club’ Sally Appert Kindle Direct Publishing 287 pages; paperback, $7.9