Books about Dads
This month, our children’s book expert, Joy Court, shares her recommendations for readers looking for books about dads. So if you’re looking for books to help you mark Fathers’ Day that promote positive, caring images of Dads and emotional literacy for boys, wrap your eyes around some of these suggestions.
Cosmic Frank Cottrell Boyce. Illustrated by Steven Lenton. Macmillan, 2008, pp384, £7.99. ISBN: 978-1529008777
Frank Cottrell- Boyce, father of seven, should be well known to all of you as an outstanding writer of funny, wise and empathetic stories and this one, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, is definitely one of his best and coincidentally would also make a fantastic transition text. The description of Liam’s arrival at his new school where, because of his unusual height, he gets mistaken for a new teacher and introduced to the whole school in assembly is utterly hilarious and guaranteed to dispel anxiety! Liam uses the fact of being mistaken for an adult to his advantage when he wins a father and child competition to visit a secret new theme park and enlists his friend Florida to be his daughter on the trip to China, while their actual parents think they are on a school trip to the Lake District. They learn they will have an actual trip into space, but only one adult will go with the four winners and the children will vote for the best Dad after a series of tests. Liam is also obsessed with World of Warcraft and thinks of acquiring Dad skills in terms of levels which is a brilliant way to analyse “Dad” behaviour, but he is somewhat appalled to win the vote and the responsibility that this brings. There are so many relatable gems of truth amongst the humour and both Liam and the reader learn an awful lot about being a parent and about adult and child relationships.
Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow Benjamin Dean. Illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat. Simon & Schuster, 2021, pp352, £7.99. ISBN: 978-1471199738.
A truly heart-warming, funny and positive debut about a son’s way of dealing with his father’s coming out and the relationship between father and son is beautifully depicted, authentic and very realistic. Archie Albright (12) is a wonderful character with a natural, chatty narrative voice that really engages the reader. He desperately wants to understand and to help everyone be happy. His Dad drops a leaflet about the PRIDE march and Archie decides he will find all his answers there and luckily, he has two staunch friends who see all the pitfalls of this expedition but decide to help him anyway. What is most refreshing is that this is not a story about overcoming homophobia- all the main characters are totally accepting of Archie’s Dad’s right to determine his sexuality, while not denying the pain that comes from family break up. It deals honestly with difficult emotions and conveys a strong message about empathy and tolerance. This is such a rewarding, positive and inclusive read that it deserves a place in every school.
Daddy, Don’t Let Go Jeanne Willis Illustrated by Tony Ross. Andersen Press,2004, pp32, £6.99 ISBN: 9781842703779.
Just reissued with the somewhat superfluous addition of Daddy to the original title, this is one of my favourite books from this brilliant pairing of author and illustrator. Beautifully written and with every nuance of expression and body language detailed in the evocative images, this captures so perfectly the eternal dichotomy of the parent who wants to help their child learn all the skills to be independent while never wanting their childhood dependence to end. This also absolutely nails the terror of learning to ride a bike for the first time and the joy of succeeding. Added pathos comes from the fact that this is a father living apart from his daughter. This comes with a hankie warning for every parent, but can also provoke really interesting conversations with children about growing up and how relationships change and about the emotions parents feel.
Papa Penguin. Lindsay Camp. Illustrated by Momoke Abe. Andersen Press.2021, pp32, £12.99. ISBN: 9781783449767
I love that this new book uses one of the natural worlds most impressive, self-sacrificing father figures- the Emperor Penguin- in order to tell a lovely story about a father and son relationship (and incidentally reinforce the message about the importance of the bedtime story routine). Grumpy Sam is waiting for his father to get home tell him a story and then refuses his usual favourite dinosaur superhero story and so instead his Dad tells him the amazing true story of Papa Penguin who waits in the freezing cold, guarding his egg, hardly moving, not eating for weeks and weeks until at last the egg hatches. A wonderful way to demonstrate the real superpower of unconditional parental love and reassuring Sam that his Dad loves him even when he is not there. The added penguin facts at the end are another bonus to this strikingly illustrated tale.
My Dad is a Grizzly Bear. Swapna Haddow. Illustrated by Dap Adeola. Macmillan, 2021, pp32, £6.99. ISBN: 978-1529013979
Another welcome new addition to the genre, is this lovely inclusive picture book about a mixed-race family, full of heart and lots of interactive humour, that is just perfect for reading aloud. A debut picturebook from a popular young fiction author paired with a prizewinning illustrator, this has a lively, imaginative narrator who suspects that his Dad is actually a grizzly bear- he eats all the honey, is very furry, sleeps a lot and very suspiciously loves exploring and camping in the woods (adults may struggle to explain what they find quite so funny about the image of Daddy bear heading off into the woods with a toilet roll). But when you are genuinely scared there is nothing like a bear hug from your Dad to make you feel safe and loved. This warm and witty story is bound to be popular.
If you’d like to download Joy’s full list of book recommendations for June 2021. Simply click on the link below.