Hero

Most of the book’s action takes place in Central Park, a large urban recreational area in the middle of New York City’s Manhattan borough. Across Fifth Avenue from Zach’s apartment, “Central Park was his own backyard” (16); his mom calls it Zach’s “playground.” Indeed, Zach loves to go running there, enjoy walks among the trees, and even studies in the park’s quiet beauty. As Zach’s powers appear, so do his opponents, who confront him or Kate on several occasions in the park. Mr. Herbert also uses the park as a training ground for Zach. The book’s climax takes place there, when Senator Kerrigan, beginning a speech before a huge crowd, nearly gets shot by a sniper. 

Two matching coins, Morgan silver dollars, figure prominently in the book. Zach’s father keeps one and gives the other to his son, saying they bring luck and help connect the two family members. After his father dies in a plane crash, Zach visits the site and finds his dad’s coin. He keeps them both and learns that they glow and get warm when danger threatens. Mr. Herbert’s team members confront Zach and demand the coins, which he refuses to turn over. Later, though, angry at the way Uncle John and Mr. Herbert have lied to him and frustrated that the coins didn’t prevent his dad’s death, Zach hurls them far into the trees of Central Park. The coins represent a link between him and his father; they also connect to his newfound superpowers and symbolize those abilities. When Zach throws them away, he symbolically severs his dependency on his father and begins a new, more confident phase of his life. 

Site of some of the early events in the story, the Parker School is where both Zach and Kate attend as eighth-grade students. Zach, a mediocre student, is good at sports—an early sign of the great physical talents he’ll acquire later—while Kate, a more serious learner, also sings in school musicals. Zach struggles there with a nemesis, Spenser Warren, the student body president and rival for Kate’s attention. The school serves as a locale where Zach confronts some of the growing pains of adolescence.