Review: Good Morning, Superman

When I got to work this morning I had a box of books waiting for me from Baker and Taylor. These were free samples that they sent out for me to look at, which is always exciting! I probably won't be adding most of them to the collection, but there were a few standouts. I won't review every book I use in a storytime or every book I think is good because that would take ages, but I would like to highlight ones that might help add diversity to a collection!

Review

In the post about my superhero storytime, I mentioned how difficult it was to find superhero books with diverse characters. The protagonists of superhero picture books are almost exclusively male and white. Imagine my delight when I opened up this box to see a superhero book with a black boy front and center on the cover! Good Morning, Superman by Michael Dahl goes through the boy's morning routine such as getting out of bed, putting on his clothes, and brushing his teeth, and compares them to what Superman does during his day. Having daily mundane tasks compared to heroic activities might help make reluctant kids a little more enthusiastic about their day-to-day routines. It even includes checklist at the end for kids to check off their morning tasks.

Part way through the book Superman needs help from a friend and Supergirl appears. In the boy's daily routine Supergirl is his sister, a young black girl who also sports a superhero costume. Having a superhero book that features diversity in both race and gender is extremely uncommon so I really appreciated seeing that here. The girl is not the focus of the book, but she appears on a number of pages and young female superhero fans will appreciate seeing that girls can be heroes too. The illustrations are colorful and fun and make a great addition to the simple text.

This book is the second in a series after Bedtime for Batman, which features a boy of ambiguous race getting ready for bed and comparing his nighttime routine to Batman's. I love that DC comics has a wide range of titles available for even the youngest superhero enthusiasts and I hope that they will continue this series, preferably with a young female protagonist in the next one!

Summary

Young superhero fans will love seeing how their daily activities make them just like Superman and adults will appreciate the diversity that this book offers.