His iden­ti­ty remains unknown — no longer; nei­ther Batman’s nor Batman’s co-cre­ator, Mil­ton ​“Bill” Fin­ger. In this book, struc­tured around revealed secrets, old­er read­ers learn of anoth­er Jew­ish com­ic book genius with a sad his­to­ry. Despite the pic­ture book for­mat, the con­tent, mood and vocab­u­lary will appeal to read­ers over age 10. Author Marc Tyler Noble­man demon­strates that Fin­ger had bet­ter luck with Bat­man than teen cre­ators did with Super­man, but not much. Noble­man has made a cot­tage indus­try of bit­ter­sweet rev­e­la­tions about Jew­ish com­ic inven­tors; if he were a singer, he would do torch songs.

Bill the Boy Won­der chrono­log­i­cal­ly reveals Finger’s career and the impact of his reli­gion on his work. Old­er col­leagues manip­u­lat­ed Bill’s youth and sweet per­son­al­i­ty, using him to design and write with­out cred­it. He received only a small salary. The man whose con­tract deemed him Batman’s sole cre­ator came to Bill for help. Bill designed Batman’s shape, clothes and mis­sion. He wrote plots, dream­ing up Gotham City, Bruce Wayne, and Batman’s famous vil­lains. Bill died just as he was becom­ing an unsung leg­end; lead­ers of the indus­try were begin­ning to acknowl­edge him and even the ​“sole cre­ator” was sor­ry he had hogged the cred­it. Bill’s name now appears on reprints but the mon­ey goes to oth­ers. There is a light touch for tar­get­ed read­ers — Fin­ger used puns writ­ing about Bat­man, and Noble­man uses puns writ­ing about Fin­ger. The con­clud­ing author’s note is geared too old for young read­ers but will fas­ci­nate their par­ents. Read­ers will feel proud of their her­itage; Fin­ger is a role mod­el who pro­vides a strong, if not hap­py, life les­son. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 16.