Oh, Daddy!

PreS-Gr 1In this humorous paean to fatherhood, a rounded, Raschka-esque hippo explains that he is so smart that he shows his dad how to do things. Shea goes through a series of scenarios in which the father gets his son to do what he wants by pretending he doesn't know how to do it correctly. When the youngster claims to be "busy getting dressed," the pictures show him watching TV in his underwear. The father proceeds to mix up his clothing and asks, "Is "this" how you get dressed?" prompting the child to respond, "Oh, Daddy! "This" is how you get dressed!" And so it goes, ending with the boy showing his father how to give big hugs. The concise text captures the child's voice perfectly, and the well-placed page-turns effectively set up what comical thing the adult has done to prompt each "Oh, Daddy!" The mixed-media illustrations incorporate collage elements into a spare, cartoonlike world depicting thickly outlined blue hippos with dot eyes and expressive faces. The gentle humor evident in the contrasts between text and pictures, as well as the scenes of the father doing things outrageously wrong, will keep kids entertained. This will work equally well in storytimes or one-on-one. Buy it for Father's Day and put it out all year as an antidote to the cloyingly sweet parent-child books glutting the market."Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

I don't know what my daddy would do without me, admits a little blue hippo. When his father, wearing oven mitts on his hands and underwear on his head, asks, Is "this" how you get dressed? the child exclaims, Oh, Daddy! and demonstrates how to put on practical clothes. When his father squeezes through the car window, the child teaches him to use the door. Shea pictures the stocky, tumbling hippos with kidney-bean heads and sets them in simple, sunny digital collages. His amiable pair accomplishes necessary tasks and goof around, toobusy parents will want to try this formula of patience plus humor. Ages 36. "(May)" Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

"A breath of fresh air."—Kirkus Reviews