About Just Like Click:

Just Like Click is a superhero adventure story for a new era.

Nick Townley has lived his entire life—all eleven years—at Black Butte Ranch, nestled in the foothills of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. While his parents push him to study harder, practice sports more, and make friends his own age, Nick prefers to retreat into his superhero universe and create exciting Adventures of Click comics.

When a string of robberies threatens Dad' s job, forcing them to move across the country, Nick' s world implodes. He loves his home, and what will he do about the $237,000 in cash under his bed that Great Gramp secretly gave him before he died? Desperate to stop the move, Nick steps off his comic book pages and ventures into the night as Click, an undercover superhero. Catching thieves would be a lot easier if he had actual superpowers.

When three new kids—Patrick, Celia, and Jacey—discover his identity and want to join him, Nick vows to remain undercover, working solo like Superman. But when a little girl is lost on top of Black Butte, Nick realizes even a superhero needs help at times. Now with new friends, he has more reason than ever to thwart the lumber thieves so he can stay at Black Butte Ranch, but is he willing to put his friends in danger? What would Click do?

Just Like Click won the Kraken Book Prize sponsored by Regal House Publishing to recognize outstanding middle grade fiction. Each chapter begins with a delightful and humorous comic-book-style illustration that adds another layer of interest to draw readers in.

Author bio:

A native Oregonian, Sandy Grubb and her family have enjoyed many vacations at Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon, the setting for her debut middle grade novel, Just Like Click, coming out April 16, 2024, with Fitzroy Books. Just as her protagonist, Nick, aspires to be a superhero, Sandy hopes her readers come away from her story realizing they each have their own unique superpowers.

A former elementary school teacher, Sandy has an English and French Literature degree from Stanford University and a teaching certificate from U.C. Berkeley. Sandy and her husband live near Portland, Oregon. When she isn’t writing, Sandy enjoys exploring the beauty of our planet, meeting interesting people, and experiencing other cultures. Volunteer work with World Vision has led Sandy off the beaten path to meet amazing children around the world—from tunnels under the streets in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to densely populated slums in Bangladesh, to small remote villages in Zambia.