My daughter, Violette, and I received a spread of Iron Man 2 books from my friends at Hachette (who run Little Brown and a handful of other publishing houses). With the movie coming out, kids are going to be excited to see the latest exploits of their comic book hero come to life. Now, the movies aren’t exactly made for little kids (I think they’ll have the PG rating) and Violette (who’s almost 8) isn’t permitted to see them, but Hachette and Marvel are smarter than to let that stop them.

Violette’s a learning reader. She’s not fast, but she’s good once she gives it some time. I made her read cold on this video (not her strong suit), so you’ll be able to judge how the books relate to your kids ages. She’s also not an Iron Man fan (I know, I know; you try to bring them up right…), but you’ll get a sense of what she thinks in this video. (Can’t see the video? Click Here.)

I think the books are decent for kids. They mix some pretty tricky words with some much more appropriate reading level stuff. The violence isn’t exactly called out, especially in the books for younger kids, and you’ll basically be left with a lot of pictures of Tony in his armor and Black Widow with her curly red hair (obviously there to draw in female readers who were left out in the last movie/books).

Here’s a sampling of the books we reviewed, if you want to see what they look like (these are amazon affiliate links):

All in all, Violette wasn’t exactly blown away, but I think they’re suitable, if your kid is into Iron Man and superheroes. The magic, don’t forget, is to get them to transfer their enthusiasm for a movie into an enthusiasm for the written word.