Heroes

Heroes (2024) is a middle grade historical adventure novel by New York Times bestselling American author Alan Gratz, whose children’s fiction includes Two Degrees (2022), Ground Zero (2021), Grenade (2018), and Ban This Book (2017). Gratz is known for his historical accuracy and high-stakes adventure, and his depiction of tense and dangerous historical events. Heroes follows Frank McCoy and his best friend Stanley Summers as they live through the harrowing experience of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, complicated by the racism Stanley faces because of his Japanese American heritage. Their story explores the loss of innocence in the face of war and the meaning of true heroism.

This guide refers to the 2024 hardcover edition of Heroes published by Scholastic Press, which includes a bonus comic.

Content Warning: This guide and source material include depictions of wartime violence and death, as well as depictions of racism. The source material also uses anti-Asian racial slurs, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes.

Plot Summary

On December 6, 1941, best friends Frank and Stanley ride their motorboat through Pearl Harbor, heading to their homes on the Ford Island US Naval Base.