Daddy-Sitting

A cheerful girl describes her day spent playfully caring for her father. After the girl makes her bearded, bespectacled father cereal for breakfast (most of the milk lands on the table), they bike to the playground (he provides the leg power) then go shopping at the grocery store, where the girl takes a quick nap (“I can’t watch him every minute”). Back home, she has “lots of jobs to do,” including hosting a tea party; her father, meanwhile, finishes household chores. For all of her skills, he’s not too shabby, either. Coy’s chalky watercolor-and-colored-pencil art brings a quality of quiet panache to a familiar father-daughter dynamic as the girl imagines her father as a “famous chocolate maker,” a lion tamer, and an astronaut. But he foregoes those roles: “He wants to do only one job, which is always packed with adventure... being my daddy.” Coy’s message about choosing to full-heartedly parent is clear; readers may wonder, though: couldn’t he fit some lion taming in on the side? Ages 4–7. [em](May) [/em]