My dad is the best! by Nic McPickle and Tommy Doyle

A very warm look at children and their dads, as the text strolls through some antics that Dads get up to. From appalling Dad jokes, to farts which are blamed on the dog, singing those awful old songs, or thinking he used to be a radical, hip sort of person, fathers can’t all be the same or can they be? 

Koala poses this question and then looks at other animals to see how what Dads do in their families.

From fathers making sure a load on the trailer would be going nowhere, to having to spend a boring rainy day with Dad, to cleaning up his room and being told it is beast on ground, to suggesting a stubbed toe needs amputation, Dads say the most obvious things, telling it as a joke.

Father Lion reminds his offspring that he was not born in a tent, or you can make decisions when you pay rent, or warning them to be careful watching so much TV their eyes will be square. Lots of inspiring pieces of advice are given by the Dads, which many kids will laugh at with recognition.

But halfway through the book, the tone changes, and all the things that Dads do are described and applauded. Dad makes lunch, washes socks, reads stories, skips stones in the lake. He is the one who packs the car so well, cries when his son has tried his best. In rhyming lines the attributes of Dads are given a wide range, and when the narrator asks his Mum how to write a card for Dad, putting down all the good things that Dads do, it becomes a momentous task, which can all be wrapped up in one line: there’s no such thing as too much Dad!

A lovely book complete with excellent illustrations, showing a range of animals doing Dad antics, will draw lots of laughs from readers. Each page has a text which will initiate laughter, and the images it is set against are bright and funny and full of witty details.

Each family of animals is shown within the house with human clothes and behaviours. So the kangaroo having a shave on the front cover introduces the reader to the style of humour they can expect, all wrapped up in a story detailing the importance of fathers, and encourages children to look again at what their fathers do, and thank them, especially with Father’s Day coming within a few months. The endpapers give a range of Dad jokes which will see them being used at home.

Themes: Fathers, Father’s day, Humour, Jokes.

Fran Knight