Colonia cul-de-sac is home to teen superhero ‘Sky Girl’
Batgirl watches over Gotham City. The Invisible Woman protects Manhattan. And now Sky Girl is here to save . . . Colonia!
Sky Girl is the creation of former township resident Joe Sergi, whose first novel, “Sky Girl and the Superheroic Legacy”($11.99, iEnovel) follows the exploits of DeDe Christopher “an average high school sophomore with dreams of winning the National Gymnastic Tournament and dating the school quarterback.”
DeDe discovers she has fantastic abilities straight out of any comic book. And so she becomes Sky Girl, probably the first super hero to hail from Woodbridge.
Sergi, now living in Washington, D.C.,and working for the U.S. Department of Justice, said Colonia was the natural setting for his sci-fi tale because he knows the community so well. He grew up on the quiet cul-de-sac of Hartland Court, living there through law school, until his parents sold the house when he was 30.
In the novel, DeDe attends Debole Academy, which is really a stand-in for the author’s alma matter, Bishop Ahr High School.
Sky Girl author Joe Sergi
The comic book enthusiast said one of the reasons he wrote the novel was to give his 5-year-old daughter a heroine she could admire.
“Wonder Woman is really the best one out there, but they really aren’t good role models,” he said. Sky Girl is Sergi’s vision of an “every woman” who isn’t “scantily clad” or “just cheesecake.”
DeDe makes her self-discovery at a fictional dance studio located at the same Inman Avenue strip mall where Sergi would covetously snap up his favorite comic titles from the spin rack at the Krauser’s Convenience Store.
“My mother bought me my first comic book, ‘Star Wars,’” he said. “It was my ‘gateway drug’ in the ’70s.”
“Sky Girl” is the first part of a trilogy of books Sergi has already written. The novel is available in e-book and trade paperback formats from Amazon.com and iEnovel.com.
Fore more information, visit skygirlnovel.com