Being a superhero is hard and messy work! This delightful book by Katherine Locke takes us along on a day in the lives of a diverse group of superheroes (who look surprisingly like young readers might), wearing capes, masks, scarves, t-shirts, and more. We see them in the store, the library, and around the neighborhood, keeping the world safe.
After they help people and catch the bad guys (including a robot and a giant dinosaur), superheroes have to wash off the bad guy goo, eat dinner, brush their teeth, and get a good night’s sleep, the story concludes, as we watch the cast of characters do just that.
One superhero, who could be read as a boy, wears a pink shirt and tutu; another, with short, wavy hair, wears jeans and a long, masculine-looking overcoat, but has eyelashes that in most picture-book iconography indicate a girl/woman. I’m therefore tagging this book as having a gender creative boy and girl, although they could also be read in other ways.
Rayanne Vieira’s colorful illustrations also show children with a variety of racial/ethnic identities. One also has a limb difference.
This a fun and recommended read for aspiring superheroes, with enough action to engage (and appropriate “Wham” and “Pow” sounds), but also a nice segue into a bedtime sequence that should encourage readers themselves to go to sleep before another day of saving the world.
