Book Review: Tommy and the Order of the Cosmic Champions

I was sent a copy of Tommy and the Order of the Cosmic Champions by Anthony D. Grate and Anthony J. Rapino a while ago and just read it this week. It was a great coming of age novel and I think it’s relatable for a lot of people of all ages.

The novel follows Tommy, an 11 year old boy in the late 1980s in the Ohio suburbs. He loves a comic and cartoon called “The Order of Cosmic Champions” and spends his time reading the comics, playing with the action figures, riding his bike with his best friend Evan, and going to the comic book store. But everything starts to change for Tommy when his parents start fighting more often and ignoring him, his best friend suddenly stops wanting to hang out with him, and he begins middle school getting bullied every day. Naturally, he turns to his favorite comic and begins to find it as an escape for him. When he finds out there is a contest to create a new character, he has something to distract him and focus on. But when his character design fails to win the contest, Tommy starts planning a way to get to Brooklyn, New York to meet the winner and convince him to help Tommy’s design get made.

The book was really good and I felt so bad for everything Tommy was going through. The bullying, the neglect of his parents, and how alone he feels. His escape into the comics help him cope and learn more about himself. As mentioned above I think this is a great coming of age novel and many aspects of the novel will be relatable to readers.