The Day I Lost My Superpowers by Michaël Escoffier (review)

When the narrator of this tale, a masked and caped young maiden of mystery, is first launched into the air by an obliging adult, she discovers that she can “fly.” What follows is a chain of superpowers that she discovers, from walking on the ceiling (doing a headstand) to making things disappear (eating the cupcake on the table). A dog-assisted flight through the backyard (via a pulley in the tree) causes a crash, though, and she’s convinced that she’s lost all of her superpowers; her mom rushes in with the superpowers of a hug and kiss, however, making the young girl feel much better. While its brevity and relatively simple vocabulary would suggest a younger audience, the joy here is in recognizing the understated mismatch between the girl’s narration and the accompanying illustrations, a process that requires a bit more sophistication. The scrawled earthtoned illustrations, with a crayony graininess that ranges from saturated planes of color to scribbly linework, effectively carry the spunk of the tale, and the heroine is breezily depicted with pigtails and an oversized expressive face. Kids will get a giggle from the picture of her underwater-breathing power (bottoms-up—literally—in the bathtub with a snorkel), and the blob-shaped background details increase the humor for close lookers. Though a superhero-themed storytime would be an obvious use, this might also be an interesting way to introduce kids in the classroom to the concept of the unreliable narrator.