Life as a Mini Hero

Part field guide to children, part instruction manual for caretakers, this minimalist volume emphasizes the daily drudgery inherent in even a heroic child’s life, including trips to the eye doctor and dentist, and the tedium of tidying. Thoughout, pint-size heroes clad in unbranded superhero uniforms demonstrate some of the challenges of childhood (a young Spider-Man ignores a droning friend; a small Wonder Woman expertly twirls a lasso, much to her friends’ annoyance). “Mini Hereos are far too busy to ever get bored.../...except sometimes when it rains,” Tallec writes, as a child sits dully in front of the television. Extending the sparse sentences’ humor and meaning, expressive pencil and spot color illustrations sometimes counter a stated point, as when a scowling superchild helps another child skip rope: “Mini Heroes love to be of service. This is what distinguishes them.” Tallec (What If...) captures the pain of a child’s world with wit and reassurance, while providing a gentle reminder to grown-up sidekicks, who “often forget that Mini Heroes can be really slow because of the many traps they have to avoid, the number of rivers they have to cross, and the many buildings they have to climb.” Ages 4–8. [em](Aug.) [/em]