Adventures With My Daddies
Author: Gareth Pater
Illustrator: Garry Parsons
Peachtree Publishing
Ages 4-8
This book is a celebration of all families in that it illustrates (pun intended) the commonality inherent in and shared by parents that actively parent and care for their children.
Written in verse (yeah for verse!), with an effortless rhyming scheme, our protagonist tells us the story of their two Dads as the family heads off on a series of adventures during story time– from dinosaurs to dragons to balloons.
Their Dads’ favorite story? Well, that would be the story that brought them together–the family’s adoption story. Note, the adoption story is not told in any great detail, rather it is mentioned in passing and given weight by Parsons’ gentle, colorful illustrations.
Although this book’s press release touts it as a way to “celebrate diverse families” (among other things), I could not disagree more. This book is a celebration of all families in that it illustrates (pun intended) the commonality inherent in and shared by parents that actively parent and care for their children. As highlighted in the story, the parents “[are] not the best at everything.”–nor should they be. They are dads, doing their best to raise a child, like all caring parents in the world.
Verse is not easy to pull-off; rhyme is even harder. The rhymes are simple; more importantly, simple to perform and will have your child filling in the appropriate word at the appropriate time–encouraging “reading” at the earliest level of comprehension. [Always a plus in well-written rhyming books; we need more of them!]
We need more books that highlight how much we all have in common. We need more books that rhyme. What makes this book special is that it encompasses the ordinary, in an entertaining, light, and substantive way. As your child grows, they will be able to pick up more nuance in the text and the illustrations–making Adventures With My Daddies a book that will be read again and again.
Adventures With My Daddies (Support an Independent Bookstore)*
Adventures With My Daddies (Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Peachtree Publishing for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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