It's a bird! It's a plane! No, wait...it's a bat...in a bright superhero outfit and cape? It's Superbat!

A great picture book, featuring wonderful facts about bats! ( )

BAts are awesome ( )

Pat the bat wants to be a superhero. Though he may not have unique skills, he learns that sometimes you just have to use the abilities you already have to make a difference.

More than anything, Pat the bat wanted to be special. He wanted to be different. He wanted to be a super-hero! Making himself a super-hero costume one day while his friends slept, he declared that he was Superbat. But what special skills and powers did he have, his friends wondered? Everything he could do, from flying to echolocation, was something they too could do. Then, in the process of rescuing a mouse family under threat from a cat, Pat displayed an important quality that all heroes (super or otherwise) should have... courage.

An engaging picture-book adventure from British author/artist Matt Carr, Superbat taps into the childhood fascination with both bats and superheroes. It's sort of a cross between the classic Stellaluna and such titles as Superhero Instruction Manual. The colorful artwork, with its bold design and cartoon-style layout, reminded me a bit of the work of Bob Shea, and is well-matched to the text. All in all, a fun addition to the growing body of picture-books about the concept of superheroes, and the young people who long to become such heroes. ( )