When a friend of mine who is obsessed with Wonder Woman had her first daughter, she was psyched to discover there were board books (translation for non-spawned humans: the chunky books for babies with pages made out of cardboard) with Wonder Woman and other superheroes. Her daughter’s 3 now and has destroyed that book with I assume drool and other baby related things. (Their spit is venom, right?) But luckily Downtown Bookworks has produced a new series of board books for infants using DC’s cast of characters.
“DC Super Heroes: My First Book of Girl Power” features not only the classic trio of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl, but also Hawkgirl, Mera, Black Canary, Mary Marvel and Raven. This is a good example of DC’s licensing department getting things right. Board books are an awesome way to get the very young interested in not only comics, but reading in general. Plus they make excellent gifts since I clearly have no idea what else babies would like other than baby books. Williams Sonoma gift card, maybe? Tiny Toddler Mandoline?
These are actually bigger than what I picture a board book as — those little square books — but I really dig the classic versions of each character. I mean putting aside that Supergirl was wearing a Red Lantern uniform for a while, what is she wearing now? I’m gonna guess it’s something awkward, revealing, and terrible.
The Downtown board books are $9.99 each and are available now. They also have “Superhero Busy Bodies” and a book about the DC Supervillains, in case you want to educate your child about human anatomy and/or how to subdue someone with sharks that have laser beams attached to their heads.
Note to self: Write children’s book about militarized autocracies. Call it “My First Death Star: The Big Book Of Super Weapons.”