Magnificent Women of Marvel, collectible/novelty or board book?

When is a board book not a board book? When it turns into a store. OK, that is not the answer, but it’s a question that one might be asking themselves when they pick up Magnificent Women of Marvel, Pop Up, Play and Display!. Sure, the pages are printed on board book thickness, which might imply that the book is geared for crawlers through kindergarten readers. However, when you look at the text it’s far too wordy and has pop-up elements on each page that are in no way able to withstand a crawler’s clumsy hands. The best way to think of Magnificent Women of Marvel is to use terminology that one would normally use with Ray Stevens or Dickie Goodman.

Novelty. That’s a term that we don’t normally use with books. One time I gave my father a novelty book. The punch line of the book was a 60-foot-yacht. The interior of the book had a yacht that was supported by 60-human-feet and the cover had a very open-ended question like, “What does every middle-aged man want for their birthday”? Our present, even though I paid for it with my own 12-year-old money, went over like a lead balloon.

Magnificent Women of Marvel might not go over that poorly with its intended audience. That’s is partial because Marvel fans, especially those who are looking for a more feminine hook, are collectors. My office is loaded with collectibles, some novelty, many that are very cool and desired, and some that are just odd. For example, I have a C-3PO oversized Pez dispenser. It’s about a foot and a half tall plays the Star Wars theme when you tilt its head back and doesn’t dispense candy. This is an odd, garage sale find that I’ve never seen before and is one of the few things that I’d run back into our house if it were on fire to retrieve.

Every two pages in the book feature a super-heroine in the MCU. When you turn to their page there is a 3-D element that turns up. That way you’ll see three layers of Marvel fun, one of the heroines in their non-costume persona, a moveable element that goes up, and a page that you can read about the character.

The written words state their real name, strengths, aliases, or a couple of other key facts. The art is very pretty and is somewhere between Marvel Comics and the way that they’re presented on screen. It’s also worth mentioning that Magnificent Women of Marvel has a wide variety of ladies who represent the MCU.

When you unfold all of the characters, the book looks like a super-hero flower bouquet. There’s lots of color, movement, and ways to position. This is a pretty, well-constructed book that will speak to young readers who really like the heroines of the MCU. When you factor in that it’s made with board book pages it’ll shrink the audience even more.

In an odd way, I could see this book being displayed in the office of a diehard MCU fan who has everything, Marvel. It could also be at home in the office of a pop culture girl boss. Magnificent Women of Marvel is a board book, but one that’s not meant for kids. Kids or those who dig superheroes will like the art, but the text is too pop-culture-centric (and non-business relatable) to cross over to Oh The Places You’ll Go. It’s a strange fit, that hopefully has a low breakeven point because the book isn’t bad, it’s just that its audience is very tough to figure out.

Magnificent Women of Marvel is by Evie Daye with illustrations by Paulina Ganucheau and available on Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams Books.

There are affiliate links in this post.