SUPERHERO VS. SCHOOL

Long uses the superhero trope to get kids ready to face their first-day fears.

Scotty is a kid with a super imagination…superhero, that is. This little boy apparently sleeps in his super-suit, as that’s how his mother finds him on this momentous morning, telling him to get dressed. But as alternate double-page spreads show, Scotty is busy with the business of a superhero, saving the world from rogue robots and anthropomorphized school supplies (and the school itself) gone berserk. Can Scotty face his biggest nemesis and greatest fear? With friends, anything is possible. Though the scenes depicting Scotty and his friends battling the fanged school have comic-book verve, there’s not much takeaway for young readers, superhero aspirations or no. Puzzlingly, following their combined assault on the school, a page turn reveals it completely unmarked and intact. Any psychological process real-life Scotty may have gone through to grow comfortable with school is invisible. For kids already filled with worries, a book containing salivating, toothy school supplies with angry eyes and malicious grins may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Scotty and his mother present white; his classmates are diverse. For great tales of imagination taking on school fears, stick with Planet Kindergarten (2016) by Sue Ganz-Schmitt and illustrated by Shane Prigmore or Super Saurus Saves Kindergarten (2017) by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Ned Young.

Superhero punch without a superclear message.