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The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy
Mar. 28th, 2012 02:32 pm
The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy by David Soman and Jacky Davis. When Ladybug Girl first came out a few years ago, I loved it, but the premise of a preschooler left out by her older siblings needing to come up with her own superhero way to play didn’t quite mesh with our family. My son, then an only child, had never been left out of the older kids games and couldn’t quite relate. He and I both loved the next book in the series, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, where Lulu and her friend Sam take multiple tries to come up with a way to play together and end up having a fabulous playground adventure as the titular superheroes. We actually bought this one, and I brought it up for years whenever the boy had his frequent similar difficulties playing with his friends. There have been other books in this series, but this one has been the first since Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy that once again grabbed the whole family with that perfect balance of real-life dilemmas and fabulous but true-to-life imaginary adventures. In this book, Sam – probably aged 4 or 5 - is playing Bumblebee Boy at home, when his little brother, probably around 2, keeps wanting to join the game. What to do? “Bumblebee Boy flies alone” – but Owen is really determined about wanting to join in. And Bumblebee Boy, busy with pirates, saber-toothed lions, bank robbers and aliens, might find that he needs an assistant. The illustrations alternate between showing the real and imaginary worlds, and the endpapers look like they could be photocopied and cut out for action paper dolls of Bumblebee Boy, Owen and their enemies. Once again Soman and Davis have made a hit for everyone in my family. Cross-posted to http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org and http://sapphireone.livejournal.com .
The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon. Illustrated by Jake Parker. Awesome Man himself takes through a day in the life of… Awesome Man. He describes his costumes, his powers (the “Awesome Power Grip,” aka hugging), and his sidekick dog, Moscowitz. We see Awesome Man beating villains like Radioactive Jell-o from Outer Space and Dr. Von Evil. And then, alas, Awesome Man is beaten by his arch nemesis. He must flee to his secret fortress, a small patch of suburbia in an undersea bubble. After some deep reflection huddled on his bed, Awesome Man realizes that the problem is that he’s out of positrons. He needs to eat to regain his strength! But once on the job again, will he ever stop long enough to reveal his secret identity to the reader? The ending is undeniably sweet. The bright, smooth pictures have occasional retro-feeling dot fills, giving a hint of old-school comics. There are just enough details to let you discover new details in subsequent readings. This is ideal for superhero-obsessed preschoolers and early elementary kids, with just the right blend of action and innocence.
Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka and J.H. WilliamsI confess that I often have trouble really buying the superhero genre, but this is one title that really worked for me. Kate Kane stars as Batwoman, forced out of the army by DADT and her refusal to break the Cadet Honor Code by lying about it. Still with a drive to serve, she’s trying to fill in the gaps in Gotham’s protection. There are, of course, dark forces at work – including a cult whose Grand Madame is targeting Batwoman directly. This Grand Madame, when Batwoman meets her, is calling herself Alice and speaking only in lines from Lewis Carroll, despite murderous intent and a past more closely intwined with Kate than she realizes. They are strong characters with an interesting story line, but what really made this for me was the art. This is not your standard-issue lines of little boxes, but gorgeous big panels that could stand on their own. The word "gobsmacked" comes to mind. Batwoman isn’t one of D.C.’s major characters, and I’d have to agree with my friend David at 
Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwarz There is a stage in the preschool years when many children become obsessed with superheroes. What three or four-year-old doesn’t long for the power to fly and to beat bad guys ten times his or her size? Yet good books for this age on the topic are surprisingly difficult to find. Poorly written easy reader books based on big budget films inappropriate for the age abound, as do picture books of similar quality but much denser text-per-page levels. Even using my librarian-fu on the catalog has had very limited success. I have seen a few good books (and alas, not written them down!), but here is a good recent entry:
