My Superpowers Book Review

This is a really useful book and discusses some complex ideas. Melinda Bradshaw's summary inside the book says it about supporting tamariki to practise their non-cognitive skills, such as persistence, focus and confidence. 

I really like the book. I find it useful to kōrero with tamariki and frame their abilities as superpowers, which appeals to their interests and imagination. And to support this, the book holds tamariki’s interest with the rhymes and the colours. It’s also great to see ethnic diversity and the depiction of a hearing aid, which my eight year old pointed out (familiar to her as her cousin is deaf).

The notes provided at the back of Urlichs’ books for parents or teachers are invaluable. If they were not included, tamariki might think they don’t have some of the skills outlined in the book because it doesn’t state that they do. What we know about tamariki (well, humans!) is that they look for ‘this is like me’ or ‘this is not like me’ so the risk is that if a child hasn’t found the confidence yet to raise their hand in class to answer a question, they may feel they don’t ‘own’ this skill. But it’s the notes that tell them they do, and the pātai are included to support this kōrero , which is the magic of this approach from Jessica Urlichs and the inclusion of Melissa Gibb’s clinical expertise. 

Would I use this book to support tamariki’s self-learning and development of all their available skills? Yes, I would!

Review by Anna Mowat, writer, advisor, and creative strategist specialising in child, family, and community wellbeing