Teaches children about dad's having different jobs and even though someones dad is different then yours they are still a dad to be proud of.
Age: 4 -8
Source: Pierce County Library ( )

There are a few reasons I liked this book. The first reason I liked this book is for the illustrations. I enjoyed how the illustrations depicted the poems on the corresponding pages so well. Each picture of a father and his child made me feel as if I knew the child and the father’s relationship. For instance, on one page where the corresponding picture is a young girl and her father they aren’t wearing shoes. The poem ends with “But my dad has the greatest job- he’s a dad that stays at home.” They have their shoes off because they stay home together. Another detail I loved was how the clothing of the father on one page was turned into the background on the corresponding page where the poem was written. This was a small touch that not all children might notice but gives the book character in terms of the illustrations.

Another reason I loved this book was because of the overall feel of the writing style and flow. The poems were all separate from one another without any overlapping in plots, yet they were written in similar ways. For instance most, not all, of the poems have a rhyming nature to them. In one poem about a father who serves for his country the son writes, “My daddy—he is far away. I wish him home most every day.” In another where the father is a barber and is cutting his sons hair, the son writes “When it’s time to cut my hair I climb up on a kitchen chair piled high with books to make me tall but not so high that I could fall.” While the stories/poems are all such different accounts of what makes each father unique, the rhyming brings it together nicely. I also liked the writing for the opposite reason. Although they have a common thread of rhyming, they are all different styles of poems. Some include dialogue, while others are simply accounts from the children. Some of them are longer and go into detail while others are a few lines in length.

I think that the overall message is that fathers come in all shapes and sizes- they carry a wide range of jobs and lifestyles but all of them love and care for their children the same. ( )

ooof, even as a daddy this is too much for me. Too much being your son's hero and playing catch with him and not enough making sure he brushes his teeth and teaching him not to hit. ( )