Remember when we used to give our fathers ties for presents because we didn't know anything else about them? I used to dread growing into the man whom anyone would ever want to buy a tie. With Father's Day approaching, here are ten great books -- most of them not well known -- about trying to make sense of your old man.
10 Great Picture Books for Father's Day
Night Driving by John Coy and Peter McCarty(01 of10)
What we talk about when we're not talking about love. A father and son drive through the night, listening to the radio, playing alphabet games, fixing a flat, noticing stuff. With luminous black and white illustrations by Peter McCarty. Modest and unforgettable.
Else-Marie and her Seven Little Daddies by Pija Lindenbaum(02 of10)
Odd and Swedish and typically matter-of-fact. The seven little Daddies are all identical, and they are scatter-brained. If there's a metaphor here, good luck finding it. For Else-Marie the dilemmas are all practical. Such as: What will the kids at school think? All those seven little Daddies need to use the bathroom in the morning too.
Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino(03 of10)
No more and no less than what happens when a boys meets up with his working father for their regularly scheduled trip to the diner. With Goodnight Mr. Night, Yaccarino's simplest and most enduring work.
Two Old Potatoes and Me by John Coy and Carolyn Fisher(04 of10)
When life gives you potatoes... grow sixty-seven new ones. This is a story about the making the best of a tough situation, divorce in this case, although to this author's immeasurable credit, both daughter and father spend more of their time together weeding and worrying about the stuff they can prepare against (potato beetles, drought) than whatever unhappiness has resulted in their frequent separations. With splashy, busy pictures by Carolyn Fisher. Hopeful. Believable. Fresh.
Don't Let Go by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross(05 of10)
Willis and Ross are probably better known for their frisky woodland creatures, but this story is every bit as relevant to parents as it is transporting (and a little bit magical) to the kid who is worried about growing up too fast, or maybe not fast enough. Here are knee-pads, a helmet and otherwise copious precautions, then suddenly tigers and promising jungles, and the ends of the world to investigate on the other side of this dubious reassurance: "Daddy, I'm here. I won't let go. Not until you say." Tearful and true.
A Day with Dad by Bo Holmberg and Eva Eriksson(06 of10)
Magnificent. Try and ignore the blandness of the title, which speaks more to the modesty of these characters than the author's aspirations. There's a divorce somewhere in the background here, still this is a story determined to look at the simple, even ritual acts of putting something back together - a hot dog, a movie, the library - rather than lingering on whatever broke it. "This is my Dad!" blurts the boy to no one in particular on the train heading out. Unblinkingly hopeful.
The Daddy Mountain by Jules Feiffer(07 of10)
An epic assault. Everything may look bigger to children than we can remember, but this book also captures how slowly - and eventfully - even the smallest of moments can unfold. "The Daddy Mountain has bony knees and bends them for me so I can sit and catch my breath." Parent as stage, summit and sanctuary.
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr(08 of10)
Trains whistling and dogs calling and boots crunching eventually yield to the magnificent appearance of a great horned owl on a snowy moon-drenched night. Be patient here. (Father knows best, just this once.) Buried deep in those woods are also a fox, a squirrel, a deer and a raccoon which you may not have noticed during previous visits. All these years later, still quiet and hard to forget.
Fishing in the Air by Sharon Creech and Chris Raschka(09 of10)
No fish are caught or otherwise exploited in the making of this book, in fact here is a story about the very best reasons to go on any sort of trip at all, regardless the pretext. These travelers happen to be a boy and his father (and the memories of his father before him) but the ebullience in this book is contagious, no matter your place in your family. Chris Raschka is one of the great and completely original illustrators of our time, and here he has the currents of wind and river and Sharon Creech to accompany him. They sing.
The Perfect Spot by Robert J. Blake(10 of10)
Same woods, different agendas. Dad's kind of persnickety: "I'm not in stump mood," he grumbles when the boy who is the narrator here tries to show him the remains of an old tree. This will quicken the hearts of young naturalists probably who may recognize themselves exploring the woods with a glass Mason jar, but it's also the clear-eyed portrait of a parent so distracted by his sense of mission he forgets to include his son. He's a painter apparently (a hobby, it seems, not a job) so this author gets some mileage from the difference between capturing nature and capturing it. The ending is pretty much announced in the title, although it is stumbled upon - believably - and you get the feeling they're going to need to find this place again.
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