The cover of “Even Superheroes Stay Home,” a children’s book inspired by life in quarantine and written and illustrated by Jamie McGaw, of Bend.

1. “A hero for our time”

GO! Magazine devoted the May 28 issue to one of the nerdiest, most fun themes of the year: superheroes. And in newly minted local author James McGaw, parent of Jamesy and Aubrey McGaw, we found one. As I wrote at the time: Every superhero has an origin story. The hero in newly minted author Jamie McGaw’s children’s book, “Even Superheroes Stay Home,” was born during quarantine and inspired by his and wife Regina’s 3½-year-old son, Jamesy. The book is dedicated to “Super Jamesy,” older brother to their daughter, 18-month-old Aubrey. “She’s his little sidekick,” McGaw said.

In simple and clever illustrations, the book shows how a young hero in mask and cape can be helpful and heroic at home, including finding dad’s glasses and interpreting for his pre-verbal younger sibling.

There’s something of the hero in Jamesy’s dad, too. Rather than attempt to make money off the book, which he wrote and illustrated over four weeks early in the quarantine, McGaw wants to get “Even Superheroes Stay Home” into as many hands as possible.

Since its release, McGaw’s book has been downloaded in 62 countries on six continents.

“After getting many requests for a paperback version, I self-published a paperback version of the book in September via Amazon,” McGaw said via email. It’s sold about 100 copies so far, “(but) the digital downloads keep coming every couple of days, mainly from Ottawa, Canada. This whole journey has been the highlight of a dark year, and I’m very grateful to have been able to make a positive impact for so many teachers/families during such a hard time.”

In addition to his work at the ad agency he founded, the Flask Agency, McGaw is also co-founder of Easy Company, which develops digital products for the legal industry. The success of “Even Superheroes Stay Home” inspired Easy Company to develop a digital education product for schools.

“In the wake of at-home schooling and feeling really good about the successful impact of the book, we were inspired to make a free educational product called Dreamcatcher that will help teachers/parents/students coordinate to keep kids on track with their online class load and better understand the learning habits of individual students,” McGaw said.

Dreamcatcher will be a part of Google Classroom and will be free for everyone. It’s set to begin beta testing in January, and interested teachers can email McGaw at jamie@easycompanyconsulting.com.

And if you still haven’t read “Even Superheroes Stay Home,” you can read it for free at jamiemcgaw.com.