But even children who don''t grasp the nostalgic references will enjoy the mix of realism and unabashed artifice in the photos, as well as the kid-driven heroics. Tauss, whose work can also be found in Barbara Rogansky''s Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems (2001), shoots in high-contrast black-and-white, with rich, silvery results reminiscent of the retro sf film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The story is unexceptional, but the photographs used to illustrate it are a powerful draw.

He keeps HIS superhero costume in a top secret hiding place,' and he springs into action when the parks and playgrounds in his metropolis mysteriously disappear. But Maleek isn''t just a consumer of secondhand adventure. The scene encapsulates the sense of wonder that superhero tales hold for children. In this picture book''s opening photo, an African American boy, Maleek, gazes upon a comic book, face bathed in light from its glowing pages. He skillfully smudges the lines between reality and fantasy, and respects his preschool audience's appetite for mastery by serving up Maleek's heroism straight-with no irony in sight. More successful are Tauss's manipulations of black-and-white pictures-even if the spreads' burnished, silver-and-gray tones appear to be more Gothic than comic.

The prose is too literal to emulate the pacing or excitement of a kerpow-style comic book (e.g., 'They flew high above the city, spreading Gigundo JuiceĮverywhere').

Unfortunately the text is not quite up to the visual talents on display here. ' Maleek and Marvyn then hop into a soda-pop–powered flying thingamajig called a Gyropod and restore all the city's parks and playgrounds into a green-space worthy of the rainforest, with bouquets blossoming even from the tops of skyscrapers. Machine,' the hero heads back 500 years and assembles plants into a growth-accelerating ' Gigundo Juice With his trusty robot, Marvyn, at his side, and the help of the ' time-o-matic-whenever-wherever Maleek awakes one day to discover that all the city's parks and playgrounds have vanished. ) inventive if uneven photo-illustrated tale, a boy urban-dweller named Maleek puts aside his beloved superhero comic books and assumes his own crime-fighting identity (complete with costume cape and goggles).

Superhero by Marc Tauss