Are "super heroes" and "heroes" really that different from one another?
Aside from the cape, or the tights, masks and emblems, I think they might, just might, be very close relatives. And perhaps children, quite effortlessly, know this.
In my latest picture book Do Super Heroes Have Teddy Bears? (May 2012,) a little boy and his sister don capes to play outdoors in the mud. They save-the-day, escape the perils of a raining afternoon, conquer their vegetables, all the while striking their own unique pose. Yet might these small playful acts of "pretending" to be a super hero, be the precursor for real heroism one day? Perhaps, their makeshift capes allow them to try heroism on, for size. So that one day they might recognize a need when it faces them on the fly.
And so... the lines between the two, blur.
