New hardcover books teach kids through superheroes, gaming, art

What can we learn from Superman and Wonder Woman, other than the fact that flying is awesome? (Provided by Downtown Bookworks)

There’s no shortage of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic-book culture aimed at budding brains these days.

But a trio of new books goes straight for the nerd gene (and nerd parents’ wallets) by putting arcane vocabulary, legit logic and encyclopedic knowledge of superheroes front and center in learning.

Whether you want to raise your kids to be rock-solid argumentative souls, dedicated gamers, or comic book devotees (or hell, all three) publishers are mining classic geek material for book-length educational products. It was bound to happen.

Check them out below, and see how we rank them according to our patent-pending, entirely objective scale-of-1-to-10 Nerd Book System.

(Provided by Pow! Books)

“Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet”
By Chris Barton, with illustrations by Joey Spiotto
Pow! Books, Oct. 21, 2014

As many parents can attest, video games are becoming easier for kids to pick up thanks to the intuitive design and mechanics of smart phones and tablets. But no kid of MINE is going without a righteous classic-gaming vocabulary. “Attack! Boss! Cheat Code!” teaches gaming terms such as griefer, kart racing, sandbox and quest through slick, colorful illustrations and short descriptions. It’s a great idea with a lot of potential, and the descriptions are smart and to-the-point. But the clunky, hard-to-read illustrations (which dominate the content, for obvious reasons) are no treat for adult eyes. Kids won’t care as much, but shouldn’t good design be standard for gamers of all ages? I can’t picture myself reading this to my son more than once. Nerd book rating: 5/10

(Provided by Experiment Publishing)

“An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments: Learn the Lost Art of Making Sense”
By Ali Almossawi, with illustrations by Alejandro Giraldo
The Experiment, Sept. 23, 2014

The title might imply a hokey photo book you’d see at the Urban Outfitters cash register. But MIT grad Almossawi goes all-in with this handsome newcomer’s guide to the world of logic. In fewer than 60 pages, Almossawi and his McSweeney’s-ready artist Giraldo accessibly tackle such classic subjects as circular reasoning, false dilemma, straw man, appeal to ignorance and genetic fallacy, among others. A glossary and bibliography aren’t necessary, but they are much appreciated and show just how seriously the author treats the subject of making logic fun for readers of any age. Definitely more appropriate for adolescents than middle schoolers, however. And it’s not just an attractive, substantive read, it’s an implicit critique of the infuriating doublespeak that permeates so much talking-head TV commentary, advertising and politics. Nerd book rating: 9/10

(Provided by Downtown Bookworks)

“DC Superheroes: My First Dictionary”
By Michael Robin
Downtown Bookworks, Sept. 16, 2014

Part of the DC-themed series from publisher Downtown Bookworks — other titles include “My First Book of Girl Power” and “My First Book of Super Villains” — “My First Dictionary” is clearly a giant branding exercise for DC Comics. But it’s also clean and easy to read, contains more than 500 words, and for the sake of all that’s holy, has some gorgeous and nostalgic images from back issues of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Shazam, Flash and many more. As a learning tool it’s about as effective as anything else out there, but for parents who want to bond with their kids over their love of the DC universe (I was always a DC guy growing up, far more so than Marvel) it’s a great option. Because as we all know, airplanes are invisible, cars shoot fire and dogs have capes. Nerd book rating: 8/10