Dinah Lance has a loud voice. She uses it when she’s mad, or excited, or worried. Her boisterous ways serve her well in the band she’s in with her two best friends. But it causes trouble other times, like when she yells at people who irritate her. What’s really strange, though, is that sometimes when she gets emotional and her voice gets loud, glass breaks all around her. Even though she lives in Gotham City, where superheroes abound, she doesn’t think much of this until she discovers a secret her mom has been holding onto. A secret that will change everything Dinah thinks she knows about herself and her family.

Black Canary: Ignite, written by Meg Cabot and illustrated by Cara McGee, is a graphic novel introducing young readers to a superhero that looks a lot like them. Dinah is in middle school, and her concerns are mostly the same as those of her friends. She wants her band to get recognition, she wants other kids in school to stop picking on her, and she wants to stop getting into trouble with the principal and her parents.

During career week she wants to sign up for a junior crime fighter’s group, because she wants to become a policeman like her dad. When Dinah discovers she has special powers, she also meets her first nemesis, a baddie named Bonfire with a grudge. That’s when she gets to find out if she’s got what it takes to fight the bad guys.

Black Canary: Ignite is fast-paced with lots of action. Dinah is a winning character sure to be a hit with readers aged 9 to 13.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.