Dad

Dedicated to “caregivers who give what they never got,” Robinson’s animal-centric ode to fathers moves with a realistically nuanced portrayal of parents as people. Narration unfolds through opposition: “Dad is here now” reads text accompanying a frog escorting tadpoles upon its back; “Dad had to go away” follows as two wide-eyed owlets gaze at an adult in flight. While a seahorse models a tender father-child moment (“Dad holds on tight”), a shark (“Dad needs lots of space”) and other animals touch on the way a dad sometimes “lets you down,/ and makes mistakes.” When concluding pages pivot to human relationships, the depth-filled and textured paint and collage artwork captures fatherhood with tenderness and honesty: one dad wipes away a child’s tears, and another “sheds a few of his own.” Even amid the examples’ push-and-pull, an underlying message of steadying care reassures, “Dad is with you,/ even when he’s not.” Human characters are depicted with varied abilities and skin tones. Ages 3–6. (May)