BooksForKidsBlog

Friday, October 01, 2021

What A Difference A Cape Makes! A CAPE! by Marty Kelley

What's that red thing among all the white towels and sheets in the linen closet?

Hmmmm! Gotta check that out....

The boy ties two corners of the towel around his neck. He sheds his nondescript shorts and tee and sweeps his hair up into powerful wind-swept pompadour.

IF I HAVE A CAPE, I MUST HAVE AS SUPERPOWER! Everybody knows that.

Dad, deep in his magazine, is not impressed.

"MAYBE I HAVE SUPER STRENGTH!" THE KID SUGGESTS.

He tries to lift the couch. Dad, unimpressed, warns him that he's likely to hurt something doing that!

He throws the cape over his head to see if it's like Harry Potter's Cloak of Invisibility.

Dad indicates that he's still visible. And jumping off the couch is not FLYING.

He tries out his super-freezing breath on Dad. Dad says it smells like he needs to brush his teeth! He's ready and set to show off his jet-powered running shoes. Dad says he can't run inside the house. Drat! What good is a cape if you can't show off your super-powers?

"YOU HAVE A SUPER POWERFUL IMAGINATION." DAD SAYS.

SHAZAM!

After all, it's the costume that makes the man. And the boy and his dad must share that power, 'cause when Dad dons his own terry-cloth cape, the two super heroes soar together in spirit in Marty Kelley's just published A Cape! (Sleeping Bear Press, 2021). The fun of this short, comically illustrated picture book is in the juxtaposition of the kid's buoyant imagination and dad's predictable bubble-popping logic of the realities of superhero-dom. And as is often true, it's the kid's job to ask... Where's the fun in all that? And everyone will get a good last-page giggle out of dad in his heart-print shorts and matching hero hairdo giving his son a chance to soar. Here's to more boys and dads and super silly superheroes!

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