HERO DAD

What makes a superhero? Dad doesn't wear rocket-powered boots; he wears army boots. He doesn't have x-ray vision; he has night vision. He doesn't wear a cloak of invisibility; he wears camouflage. Hardin leads the reader through eight attributes of this hero Dad, whom readers see as a soldier in the desert, jumping from a plane, riding in a tank, hanging with his buddies: "He doesn't have a sidekick, he has a platoon." Langdo's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations have an appealing simplicity and texture, almost as if made by the boy narrator himself. The penultimate picture shows Dad walking toward his home, a yellow-beribboned tree prominently featured, and his buoyant family. The final page echoes the first, just dad and his young son, with this conclusion in bright red: "My dad is a hero, my superhero." The boy and his family have coffee-with-cream–colored skin and dark hair, though no specific ethnicity is indicated. An important message, delivered with effective straightforwardness and an abundance of heart. Next, can we please have a Hero Mom to make a matched set? (Picture book. 3-6)