ShareThisBy KAREN MacPHERSON
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
This Father's Day, give dad the perfect gift: a great picture book and some time to read it with his favorite child:
Author/artist Remy Charlip provides a lyrical, colorful template for day a fun between father and child in "The Perfect Day" (HarperCollins, $16.99). Opening his picture book with a simple "wake up" rhyme, Charlip then has his father and child launch into a day filled with interesting things to do: read a pile of picture books, have lunch with friends, and create artwork.
While the father and child are always engaged in something together, however, it's not always an activity. Sometimes they're just lying on the grass looking at clouds; other times they are dozing. Charlip's gentle message about the importance of just being together shines through in his calmly rhyming text as well as in his illustrations, whose coziness emphasizes the close relationship between father and child. By the time the book ends (with a "go to bed" rhyme that echoes the "wake up" rhyme), the father and child have truly spent a perfect day together. (Ages 3-6).
A similar message about the importance of spending time together is the theme of another new picture book, "The Best Father's Day Present Ever" (Putnam, $15.99). But author Christine Loomis isn't quite as successful as Charlip. Where Charlip's text is simplicity itself, Loomis's is wordy and often clunky. Meanwhile, the illustrations by Pam Paparone, while lively and brightly-colored, are a bit odd, picturing the main character and his father as snails. Still, this is a book that you want to like because of Loomis' efforts to point out that kids don't need to spend money on expensive gifts for Dad; just taking a long walk together can provide a memorable experience that money just can't buy.
A little boy is getting ready for bed, but first, he wants his father to answer an important question: "Daddy, if I got taken by pirates, would you save me?"
With that beginning, author/illustrator Michael Rex launches into an energetic riff on Dad as superhero in "You Can Do Anything, Daddy!" (Putnam, $14.99). Each time the father reassures his son that, of course, he will save him, the little boy comes up with an even wackier scenario from which he must be rescued. For example, the pirates morph into gorilla pirates who then morph into robot gorilla pirates from Mars, and the father is required to do more and more outlandish things to "save" his son. But, of course, he does, and by the end of the book, it is the son who must nurture his exhausted father. (Ages 3-6).
Every morning, Pete and his dad do their bathroom routine together. They wash their faces together, brush their teeth together and they even "shave" together. But when it comes to combing their hair, only Pete has something to comb because his dad has just a few scraggly hairs. Then, one day, Pete's dad decides to do something drastic; he shaves his head.
In "Dad's Bald Head" (Walker, $15.95). author Paul Many and illustrator Kevin O'Malley join forces to show how Pete comes to terms with his father's new look. Like Pete, some young readers may be bothered, at least at first, by the dad's baldness. But most will get a kick out of the story. O'Malley's illustrations, which were created with brush and ink and then digitally colored, have an oddly fuzzy look, but he still manages to do a great job in conveying emotion. (Ages 4-7).
If Dad is a dog lover, he'll get a real kick out of "If My Dad Were A Dog" (Chicken House/Scholastic, $16.99). In this quirky book written and illustrated by Annabel Tellis, a youngster imagines what it would be like to be the one in charge, for a change -- something that could happen if Dad were a dog. Young readers will revel in the idea of telling Dad what to do, while both fathers and kids will love Tellis' illustrations, which combine photographs of a chocolate lab with colorful, simple backgrounds. (Ages 3-6).
The littlest readers will enjoy "Wake Up, Papa Bear!" (Golden Books/Random House, $9.99). Although David Milgrim's rhyming text may be too long for some toddlers, little ones will love the "touch and feel" items built into Adam Relf's illustrations, including a "blanket" they can lift, a sandpaper-y paw they can rub, and a felt ear they can pull. (Ages infant-2).
(Karen MacPherson, the children's/teen librarian at the Takoma Park, Md. Library, can be reached at Kam.macpherson(at)gmail.com).
