New DC Book Teaches Kids Anyone Can Be Super

Superheroes are all over popular media, lifting buildings, shooting lasers from their eyes at giant yetis, and hurling UFOs back into space with one toss. The impression one might get at a young age is that you have to be this powerful to make a difference. But a new book for very young readers coming from DC teaches that anyone can be a superhero — in their own way.

Writer and actor Azie Tesfai and illustrator Penelope Rivera Gaylord have created You’re A Superhero!, a graphic novel for 5 to 7 year olds about everyday heroism in your average community. It’s told from the perspective of Mariam, a six-year-old Ethiopian girl who resembles the author and her own experiences. Tesfai would grow up to play the Guardian on the Supergirl TV series, and wrote the debut episode for the character she played.

“I wrote this book because playing a superhero on television opened me up to a world filled with imagination, power, and possibility, one I hadn’t fully experienced when I was growing up,” says Tesfai. “It made me think about how meaningful it would have been to meet these heroes at a younger age and to see myself reflected in that world from the very beginning. With this story, and as DC begins an exciting new chapter in the kids’ space, I wanted children to have that experience early on.”

In You’re A Superhero!, Mariam wishes the heroes she sees on TV felt a little closer to home. But as she explores her neighborhood with her mom, she begins to notice the extraordinary people who make her community work: the building super who keeps everyone safe, the bus driver who knows every kid’s name, the electrician who brings light back to the block. Inspired by the real-life heroes around her, and by her super mom, Mariam learns the most important lesson of all: she is a superhero, too.

This is a pretty early announcement: You’re A Superhero! won’t be available until November. But DC publishes other books for the first grade audience: Superman’s Good Guy Gang, Aquamanatee, Supergirl’s Zoo‑per Heroes: Krypto’s Big Break, and Superman’s Good Guy Gang: Follow the Leader are now available at comic shops everywhere.