Like A Hero - Michael J. Bowler

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Résumé :
Courage can be costly. Orphaned brothers Vincent and Dennis Villanueva learn the truth of those words when they create a masked crime fighter and turn him loose on Los Angeles. The brainchild of fourteen-year-old Dennis and embodied in twenty-one-year-old Vincent, Invictus hits the streets to jumpstart apathetic Angelenos into taking a more active role in their city. But reality isn't a comic book. Vincent finds poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, abuse, and cast-off children. Labeled a vigilante and criminal, the shy grad student with formidable martial arts talent and abysmal people skills soon doubts his ability to make an impact. Forced to straddle an ambiguous line between moral and legal, he becomes disheartened and secretive, hiding the truth of what he's doing from Dennis and driving a wedge between them. Feeling neglected, Dennis infiltrates a dangerous drug ring to show Vincent he can be just as heroic, not knowing that the woman in charge is weaving an insidious plot against Invictus as part of her citywide scheme of vengeance. In a race against time, Vincent must regain Dennis's trust before the brother he loves is lost to him forever.

Biographie:
Michael J. Bowler grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master's in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills. He taught high school in Hawthorne, California-both in general education and to students with learning disabilities-in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook. He has been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and a decades-long volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles. He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The National honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office. He has completed three as-yet-unpublished novels aimed at the teen market, and one for middle grade. His goal as an author is for teens and middle schoolers to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world. The most prevalent theme in his writing is this: as a society, and as individuals, we're better off when we do what's right, not what's easy.