  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 01/01/2010 A rhyming text describes the commonplace things a boy can do with his father: “Pop shows me how to ride a bike. / I’m too grown-up now for a trike.” (Librarians will especially like the last one: “Papa reads to me every night / until he says that’s all, sleep tight.”) Although a first-person voice is used throughout, each spread depicts a different boy and dad, including a blind man and diverse ethnic groups. The bottom third of each double-page spread is a four-panel strip detailing the described activity; for example, the strip for “Pa waits for me when I go slow / because the streets are deep with snow” has the dad pulling the boy on a sled, the boy making snow angels and then tasting the snow, and the two of them sharing hot cocoa. Halperin’s soft palette reinforces the caring feeling between the 13 father-son pairs. The final spread is a montage of all the things the boys will do with their own children one day. - Copyright 2010 Booklist. School Library Journal - 03/01/2010 PreS-Gr 1— Short, simple rhymes are highlighted by Halperin's wonderfully expressive, soft yet colorful crayon and pencil drawings. Each of the 13 diverse father/son duos is pictured on a spread in a large illustration accompanied by four small ones, showing the two sharing an activity, such as raking leaves, biking, or spending a day in the park. The pictures could stand alone with their gentle, loving depictions, and they are the focal point of this book. The uneven, singsong sentences are simple enough for early readers: "Dad knows the times I like to hide/and when to call me back inside./Pop doesn't need to buy me stuff./Just being with him is enough." Though the rhymes are unexceptional, the illustrations make this book a charming celebration of fathers, dads, pops, papas, and pas.—Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI - Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 04/01/2010 In a departure from his usual work in folklore and fiction, prolific author Bruchac has penned a picture-book tribute to the relationship between fathers and sons. Each double-page spread features a different father-son set and a couplet describing their interactions or activities, e.g. “We walk together in the park/ I hold his hand when it gets dark”; “Pop doesn’t need to buy me stuff./ Just being with him is enough.” The featured families are ethnically and racially diverse, and the illustrations depict landmarks from across the United States, adding an additional geographic diversity. Unfortunately, the verses themselves are disappointing in the extreme; they’re jingly, sing-song, and forced, and the sentiments are blandly sweet. Halperin’s colored-pencil illustrations are somewhat more successful, capturing the love and affection the text doesn’t really manage to evoke. Her usual multipaneled style here involves a double-spread landscape view across the top half of the spread, supported by a quartet of smaller panels underneath, and the result is a peek into quotidian, if somewhat idealized, realities with which young viewers will likely identify. While some fathers and sons may find the topic enough to justify this for an end-of-day snuggle, gift-buyers looking for something with textual soundness would be better off turning to Ritchie’s Me and My Dad! or Steptoe’s In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall (BCCB 2/98) for the father-son pairs in their lives. HM - Copyright 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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