Features a long-suffering boy’s eye-rolling observations of his father’s bombastic and often corny sense of humor, which is comprised of groan-out-loud puns and wisecracking rejoinders.
My Dad Thinks He’s Funny
Fathers
Applesauce
Johnny’s daddy has smooth cheeks, an apple in his throat and sounds like a mom when he sings in the bath. At other times a cactus grows out of his chin and his breath smells like cauliflower. At times he has warm hands and his fingers taste like applesauce. Other times his hands are cold and flash like lightning, and he becomes a thunder-daddy. When this happens Johnny wants to find a new daddy, but he eventually realizes that thunder-daddies don’t last forever. And that there’s nothing like the comfort that comes from those we love.Klaas Verplancke’s story, with its humorous, energetic and imaginative illustrations, will strike a chord with many young children and parents as they discover that love sometimes means setting limits, and that people do get angry, but that where there is love, it doesn’t last.
Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 4.
Dead Cat Bounce
Liar’s Poker meets The Fugitive in this financial thriller! Jonah Lightbody is twelve years old the first time he sets foot on the trading floor where his father works. He expects his day to be filled with computer games and some father-son bonding, but when a hotshot trader offers to take Jonah under his wing, Jonah is catapulted into a high-stakes, take-no-prisoners lifestyle. When Jonah’s father is accused of orchestrating a global financial meltdown, Jonah will have to choose who to believe–the father whose blood runs through his veins or the one who taught him how to be a man. Dead Cat Bounce is the mostly true story of the 2008 financial collapse–it’s about traders but it’s also about our collective race to uncover the truth, as told through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old boy.
My Dad
Every Friday night Dad drinks beer and gets boisterous with his friends. Then, later, he and mom argue. Their son, who tells the story, and his younger sister, Gracie, are embarrassed by Dad when he gets like this.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose
In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, 10-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values and beliefs.
Flyaway
If they saved the swan together, could she then save her friend?In a heartbeat, in a wingbeat, it happens. Isla’s father falls. They’re racing across the fields, following the swans flying in to winter at the lake like they do every year, when something goes wrong. And before she can even catch her breath, they’re in the back of an ambulance, she’s holding his hand.At the hospital, upset and scared, Isla meets Harry. Unlike the boys at school, he doesn’t laugh when she tells him about her love of birds. He listens. But what is he doing there?As Isla struggles with her father’s frailty and the new feelings she has for Harry, she’s determined to help the only way she knows how. Outside the hospital windows, Isla watches a lone whooper swan struggling to fly. If only she could save the lost bird, would that somehow heal her dad, and cure Harry, and make everything good again?
Galileo’s Treasure Box
While Galileo sleeps, his young daughter Virginia, later known as Maria Celeste, explores his study and discovers some of the tools he uses in his scientific experiments.
Caravan
A ten-year-old boy accompanies his father for the first time on a caravan trip through the mountains of Afghanistan to the city below where they will trade their goods at market.
Aziz the Storyteller
Although he wants to please his father and earn money selling carpets, Aziz finds himself drawn to the storytellers in the marketplace, including one who has a special gift meant just for him.
The Moles and the Mireuk: A Korean Folktale
A mole goes to the sky, sun, clouds, and wind in search of the most powerful husband for his daughter, only to find him among his own kind.