Be a Star, Wonder Woman! Review

Be a Star, Wonder Woman!

Writer: Michael Dahl
Illustrator: Omar Lozano
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Genre: Children’s picture book

A review by Amelia Wellman

Michael Dahl, the author of more than 200 picture and young adult books is back again for another DC/Capstone picture book and Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is the best one yet! If you took a little one to see the Wonder Woman movie over the weekend and now have a Wonder Woman devotee on your hands and you’re in need of another age appropriate Wonder fix, this picture book is your answer!

As a new day dawns, a young girl faces the ultimate challenge: school! Follow along as she demonstrates her greatest superpower (sharing), overcomes her worst fear (the playground), and conquers her archenemy (a spelling test).With courage, kindness, and other heroic traits of DC’s Wonder Woman, she’ll turn a difficult school day into an amazing adventure that delivers an imaginative read-aloud for your littlest super heroes!

Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is a companion piece to Bedtime for Batman and Good Morning, Superman!. But whereas those two stories explored a bedtime and morning routine respectively, Be a Star, Wonder Woman! offers something with a little more scope. Following a little girl through her school day, we don’t just get a checklist of how to prepare for bed, we get a checklist of what it takes to be a true hero and just a good person!

Like the two DC/Capstone picture books before it, Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is a story aimed at the four to seven crowd and shows each part of the story from the little girl’s perspective and then from Wonder Woman’s. While the little girl is brave to climb a rope on the jungle gym, Wonder Woman is brave to fight Circe and a set of dragons. At the heart of what both are doing are the messages that Wonder Woman has instilled since her creation: bravery, honesty, and kindness. Compared to teeth brushing or eating a good breakfast, this is a story that definitely gives you a look at the bigger picture of life.

The broader topics might seem out of place at first, but I personally think that they fit well with Wonder Woman as a character. If you want a mystery solved, you call Batman. If you need an asteroid destroyed, you call Superman. If you need to stop a war and bring peace, you call Wonder Woman. The woman has a broad set of talents to be sure! Be a Star, Wonder Woman! also focuses less on a routine and more on shaping a caring human being, so the broad topics are there to cover the biggies like teamwork and the importance of hard work in a way that a young reader will understand and relate to.

What I think is always a great element of these DC/Capstone picture books is that the main character is a child of colour. Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is no different, with even more little ones of colour throughout as background characters. Diversity is important and I applaud Dahl and Lozano for putting in the effort to be inclusive!

Just as well done as the story of Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is the art. This is some of the cutest artwork you’re ever going to see! Every person and action they perform is full of life and is so delightfully expressive. The colours are bright and beautiful and everything is textured and soft around the edges. The art is sure to delight anyone who reads this book, no matter the reader’s age!   

The Verdict
Buy it! The DC/Capstone picture book series offers so much more than just bedtime stories. Be a Star, Wonder Woman! is such a sweet little book that is great for easy before-bed-reading and learning, but is also a great way to have kids thinking about things like honesty and teamwork. The artwork is adorable and the message is strong without being preachy. Wonder Woman fans of any age will adore this wonderful little picture book!