Book Review: What’s Dad Doing? by Susan Hall
Posted by Lisa Hill on September 10, 2013
My students love lift-the-flap books, and I know they are going to love this one. What’s Dad Doing? is a charming little book that subverts stereotypes very nicely…
Pat the Possum and his little mate Wesley Wombat go looking for dad in all sorts of places. They check out the shed, they wonder if he’s mowing the lawn, they look to see if he’s reading the newspaper.
But no, he’s not doing any of these things: when the flap is lifted, he’s feeding the baby, doing the dishes, cooking dinner and helping mum to hang out the washing. That’s because ringtail possum parents share the parenting …
Which makes a ringtail possum a very good role model for people parents, eh?
This is an excellent little book for those Me and My Family units that all schools do with their Preps Foundation classes, and the facts section at the back makes it a handy addition to a school library’s collection about Australian animals.
The simple repetitive text makes it ideal for beginning readers, and the witty illustrations by Cheryl Westenberg with the pudgy little wombat in a superhero suit are just gorgeous. The book is printed on robust card so it looks as if it will stand up to wear and tear for a while.
Author: Susan Hall
Title: What’s Dad Doing?
Illustrations by Cheryl Westenberg
Publisher: National Library of Australia, 2013
ISBN: 9780642277916
Source: Review copy courtesy of the NLA
Availability
Fishpond: What’s Dad Doing?
Or direct from the NLA Bookshop
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Book review: Night Monsters, by Nina Poulos « LisaHillSchoolStuff's Weblog said
[…] All’s well that ends well, and the last page of the book features facts about the lyrebird, complete with some images from the NLA’s collection, some of them very early ones from the 18th century. The rest of the pictures are bright and lively full colour illustrations by Cheryl Westenberg, who also illustrated What’s Dad Doing? which is a very popular book in our school library. (See my review). […]