Heroes Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Rachel Kadish has some interesting observations on the nature of heroes in children’s books of the past versus today in “Childhood Heroes: Once Self-Made, Now to the Manner Born.” ��She feels that heroes of the past were often suffering from PTSD (really!)

With a few notable exceptions, the formula is identical: Trauma is the mechanism through which superpower is acquired. It���s the very act of surviving hardship (often cataclysmic in scale) that shapes those gloriously intimidating figures i...