Book Reviews

Calling All Superheroes:
Supporting and Developing
Superhero Play in theEarly Years
Tasmin Grimmer
New York: Routledge: 2019. Contents,
acknowledgments, about the author,appendices, index, and color
illustrations. 195 pp. $24.95 paper.
ISBN: 9781138556973
Calling All Superheroes: Supporting
Superhero Play in the Early Years brings acomprehensive examination of superhero
play and related themes, including death,weapons, rough-and-tumble play, andzero tolerance policies and the banningof such play and themes. Throughout thebook’s ten chapters and three appendices,
author Tasmin Grimmer illuminates thesignificance and complexity of superhero
play with connections to relevant researchand theories together with practical application for teachers and care givers. Whilesituated in the United Kingdom (UK),the book’s themes, topics, and related
research are relevant beyond the UK. The
three appendices support practitioners byproviding an example of a superhero playpolicy and two appendices with detailed
descriptions of traditional and current
superheroes for educators.
Grimmer supports each chapter withrich color photographs and related scenarios (case studies) to illustrate the author’s
points with real-life examples. Within eachchapter, Grimmer connects superhero play
to associated topics in early childhood
such as fantasy play, developmental understandings of death, problem solving, andfamily engagement and communication.
Thus, the book provides readers with an
in-depth overview of not just superhero
play but also essential early childhood
development and learning topics.
The first three chapters focus onchildren’s play connected to three related
superhero play topics: fantasy play, ideasof aggressive play, and themes of deathand killing in children’s play. In chapter
1, Grimmer highlights the research supporting fantasy play as an essential typeof play for young children and examines
related topics of technology influencing
children’s fantasy play, children’s developmental understandings of fantasy and reality, and imaginary friends. In chapter 2,
she delves into the primary concern with207

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superhero play, aggressive play, throughan appropriate title, “‘I’m Going to Makea Gun!’: Exploring Aggression and Violent Play.” With a thorough review ofrelated research, Grimmer accurately
disputes concerns connecting superhero
and weapon play to violent and aggressive
behavior. She illustrates children’s interestsin this play and provides valuable advice
for managing this play in practice. Chapter 3 concludes this section, focusing onthemes of death and killing in children’splay. While undoubtedly controversial,
this chapter beautifully shares why children may be interested in these topics.
Grimmer presents a strong argument for
not avoiding discussions about the “inevitability of death” (p. 41) with children andhelping them understand the irreversibility of death and bereavement in developmentally appropriate ways.
In chapter 4, Grimmer highlights
important concepts of gender development and stereotypes about genderand play. Chapter 5, written by Dr. KayMathieson, connects superhero play with
the British educational standards in theEarly Years Foundation Stage Framework(EYFS) and demonstrates how superhero
play aligns with this framework and withother British values connected to morality and child development. While situated in British values, any educator willappreciate the clear example of how tomake a case for supporting this play andmeeting the educational expectations ormandates. Chapter 6 focuses on expanding the idea of superheroes to other heroes
and situates superhero play in connection
to sociodramatic play and the EYFS. This
chapter emphasizes teacher observationof play and how to support this play in theclassroom which is addressed more fullyin the following chapters.
In the next three chapters, readers will
gain valuable insights from Grimmer toapply in their own practice. In chapter 7,
the author shares how to develop an environment that supports children’s learning across all curricular areas, such as afocus on literacy. Chapter 8 delves into the
topic of managing fantasy play with ideas
about establishing rules and policies about
superhero play. Appendix 1, “Example ofSuperhero and Weapon Play Policy,” supports chapters 8 and 9 with an example of
how to share your superhero play policy
with families. The specific details about
managing typical situations with thisplay, such as how-to guidelines if children
do not want to play and how to manage
rough-and-tumble play, together with casestudy examples and the policy framework
in appendix 1, are handy tools for teachers
to support their abilities to manage superhero play in the classroom. This chapter
also includes a detailed description to help
children solve problems, which is beneficial for superhero play and many regulardaily interactions. Chapter 9 concludes
this section with guidance on how tocommunicate with families. This section
focuses on family engagement in generaland how to engage families with children’sinterest in superheroes, including at home.
The book concludes with a chapter focusing on children and concluding
remarks. Chapter 10, “To Infinity andBeyond!: Encouraging All Children toFind Their Superpowers!” discusses how
to support children to be positive citizens
and support the development of theirself-concept. Chapter 11 concludes witha general summary and statement advo-Book Reviews

cating for the inclusion of superhero playin early childhood contexts. The concluding chapters would be a good place in thebook to summarize and support morestrongly how and why children shouldhave the right to engage in this type ofplay. While the author references children’s emotional development connected
to superhero play within the book, thesechapters would be an excellent place toemphasize the importance of this type ofplay for children’s emotional development
and mental health.
Given the current concerns aboutmass shootings in the United States, awar in Ukraine, and a global pandemic,
it is essential to note that allowing children’s superhero, power play, and playwith themes of death and killing is probably even more important now to support
their social-emotional development andprocessing of the world. Calling All Superheroes: Supporting and Developing Superhero Play in the Early Years is a timely andvaluable resource for educators worldwide
to consider and reflect on superhero play
and all the related controversial playthemes.
—Jeanne Galbraith, State University of
New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY

Playful Visions: Optical Toys andthe Emergence of Children’sMedia Culture
Meredith A. Bak
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020.
Acknowledgments, introduction,conclusion, notes, and index. 276 pp.
$30.00, paper. ISBN: 9780262538718

What makes children so impressionable? In Playful Visions: Optical Toys andthe Emergence of Children’s Media Culture, Meredith Bak reframes this loaded
question by tracing how such anxieties
arose from a nineteenth-century culture
in which visions of childhood emerged
from engagement with optical play. For
instance, the image of the impressionable child arose from optical theories on
persistence of vision that posit vision as
literally leaving impressions through “aninscriptive, percussive process in which
the eye’s surface is struck or marked”(p. 10). Through this and other cultural
notions of visuality, Bak argues thatnineteenth-century optical play served
as “a key component in the formation ofmodern middle-class childhood” (p. 26).
Childhood, it turns out, is literally a matter of optics. Yet, as Bak demonstrates, thecultural optics that frame and construct
playful visions of childhood do not constitute a singular vision. Instead, each newly
invented optical toy rekindled culturaldebates through which recurring paradoxes were continually reimagined. Thus,
Bak takes particular care in tracing how
discursive constellations coalesced arounddifferent optical toys with “distinct material features that invite different forms ofinteractivity, manipulation, and social andindividual play” (p. 19).
To this end, Playful Visions is organized as a series of case studies in whicheach chapter traces how one such constellation orbits a different kind of optical play.
After contextualizing her project with two
introductory chapters that situate opticaltoys within childhood and media culture,
Bak begins her case studies by exploring
how the visual and verbal play mediated209