Because I’m Your Dad
Author: Ahmet Zappa
Illustrator: San Santat
Disney, Hyperion Books
Ages: 2 to 5 years old, Grades P to K
The true test, comes in a reading. My four-year-old loves this book. He demands that we read it again and again.
So, this is not a book that I would normally gravitate towards if I saw it on the shelf of a bookstore, or was shopping online. For one, the artwork on the cover does not catch my eye; for another, the title Because I’m Your Dad reminds me too much of “because I said so,” which to me is a non-ender for any argument with anyone. This book was a gift to me and my child, And, I am very happy we received it, because otherwise, we would have missed out on a solid read.
Zappa, third of four children born to Frank and Gail Zappa (yes, that Frank Zappa), has crafted a tender book that highlights some of the things “Dads” generally do, at least according to popular culture, in raising their children.
Because I’m your dad, you can have spaghetti for breakfast,
Because I’m your Dad
French toast for dinner,
and rocky road ice cream in the bathtub.
Zappa mentions everything from teaching how to ride a pogo-stick to making mud forts in the backyard. By the way, did you notice how I put dads in quotation marks? Well, I don’t necessarily think that it’s only dads that do these things. I think parents do them all the time when they want to inspire, cajole, motivate, or simply demonstrate love. But, I don’t mean to get preachy. Here is the thing. There is a dearth of books on the market that highlight fathers. In fact, as my child has not yet reached “reading age,” I find myself changing the gender on some stories merely to feature a father as the main protagonist and/or the figure that is showing parental affection. It is easy to find a story that features maternal affection–paternal affection, not so much. Zappa captures it brilliantly.
The true test, comes in a reading. My four-year-old loves this book. He demands that we read it again and again. He even loves the artwork, that leaves me, well–cold. But, like so many things in life, it’s not about me, it’s about him; because he’s my son.
Because I’m Your Dad (Support an Independent Bookstore)
Because I’m Your Dad (Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
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