My Daddy

by Susan Paradis

In My Daddy, a little boy tells us about how magnificent his daddy is, a man who can “cross the street alone” and “run outside without a coat”.  The pictures are filled with surrealism and animal images, echoing the text and portraying the magical realism of a child’s world.  This story is told in only a very few words but nonetheless is deeply evocative of the pride and wonder that a very young child can feel in his father’s seemingly godlike abilities.  My Daddy both reminds us of the importance to children of feeling safe and secure with a father, and inspires us to be the best that we can be for them.  This book will both move you and make you want to be the same kind of father for your own children.

Excerpt:

Then my daddy hugs me and spins my world around.  And when my daddy throws me high, I fly . . .

Product Details:

• Reading level: Baby-Preschool
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Front Street imprint of Boyds Mills Press; 1st edition (March 30, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886910308
• ISBN-13: 978-1886910300

The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia

by Laura Miller

In The Magician’s Book, Laura Miller recounts a journey familiar to many of us who loved the Chronicles of Narnia books as children.  In the first two parts of the book, she tells how she was compellingly drawn into Narnia as a child (“Songs of Innocence”), only to feel betrayed and disillusioned in adolescence (“Trouble in Paradise”) when she discovered the Christian allegory underlying the books.  But in the third part (“Songs of Experience”) she relates how she came back to Narnia later in life and explains the lessons that it taught her.  Although this book is at its core a personal journey, Miller includes the voices of others in her work, most notably the authors Phillip Pullman and Neil Gaiman.  Her opinions are also charmingly informed by her experiences reading to – and relating to – two toddler children.

Religion and the issue of C.S. Lewis’ Christianity are in fact dealt with only briefly here.  Rather – as she explains in the Introduction – Miller’s goal is to illuminate Narnia’s “other, unsung dimensions.”  These include its roots in the literature of the Middle Ages, the relationship of the British to nature, the manner in which our perceptions and use of language change as we grow from childhood to adulthood, the defining characteristics and uses of allegory, and much more.  Much of the book deals with the friendship between Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and the contrast between the Narnia books and Lord of the Rings.  Rather than dissecting the books themselves, Miller focuses on the differences between the authors in their worldviews and in their fundamental approaches to literature and writing, and how these differences informed their individual works.

For a work of literary criticism, this is a surprisingly accessible book.  Miller’s tone is neither overly didactic nor dryly academic, but rather that of a familiar friend with whom you’re discussing a mutually fascinating topic.  Yet she nonetheless manages to cover a far-reaching range of scholarly and interesting topics, all without straying far from the touchstone of Narnia.  Laura Miller has written a work of nonfiction just as compelling as any novel, and one which will both touch the heart and engage the mind of anyone who has ever loved Narnia.

Excerpt:

I’ve read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so often since then that I no longer have a distinct recollection of the first time.  What was it like to be genuinely surprised when Lucy Pevensie’s fingertips brushed against branches instead of fur coats as she first walked through the wardrobe and into the snowy woods?  That sensation is lost to me.  What remains is a dim recollection of how life was shaped before I knew about Narnia, and a more distinct sense of what it was like afterward.  I had found a new world, which at the same time felt a place I’d always know existed.  It wouldn’t have occurred to me to be wistful about the fact that I’d never read this perfect book for the first time again.  All I wanted was more.

Author Interview:

There will be a live interview with Laura Miller on BlogTalkRadio on December 4th, at 1:00 pm EST.  You can set a reminder there to listen.

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (December 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316017639
• ISBN-13: 978-0316017633

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgivings Past

Uncle Jed’s Barbershop

by Margaree King Mitchell
Illustrated by James Ransome

In Barbershop, Little Sarah Jean tells the story of her Uncle Jed and of his long quest to open his own barbershop.  In the South during the time of segregation, Uncle Jed is the only black barber in the county.  He travels from home to home to cut his customer’s hair, and is slowly saving to one day achieve his dream of owning his own barbershop, which most consider impossible.  But there will be many obstacles in his way, including Sarah Jean’s sudden illness and the Great Depression.

This is a book about the special relationship that a child can have with an uncle, and also about the ways in which our uncles and other male relatives can serve to inspire us with their example.  It’s also a book about America’s history and our history of race relations, and a good starting point for introducing a child of any color to that history.  The paintings capture well both the character of the times and of the people, and will help to bring the story and its setting alive for children of any age.

Excerpt:

Jedediah Johnson was my granddaddy’s brother.  Everybody has their favorite relative.  Well, Uncle Jedediah was mine.

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671769693
• ISBN-13: 978-0671769697

A Day With My Dad At The Beach

by Lance Waite
Illustrated by Manuela Pentangelo

A little girl gets to spend time at the beach with her father in this delightful rhyming book about enjoying togetherness between fathers and children.  After school her father picks her up on his bike and they ride to the beach to enjoy a long afternoon and evening of playing on the sand, swimming, and going to the boardwalk.  Along the way they also talk of deeper matters like the importance of friends and family, and what the future may hold.  The colorful pictures in this book fairly leap off the page, and perfectly capture the joy and excitement of dad and daughter’s fun day together.  Both the words and images work together make the love and pride between father and daughter palpable, and this book shows that sometimes the most simple joys shared with our children are the most important and most enduring of all.

Excerpt:

Our cottage is small and close to the beach, with little white windows and a fence near the street.  I go to school while my dad is at work.  He draws big buildings, while I get paint on my skirt.

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Parents Publishing Group, LLC; 1 edition (June 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601310161
• ISBN-13: 978-1601310163

Weekly Geeks: Bloghopping

This weeks Weekly Geeks asks us to visit 5 blogs that participate in Weekly Geeks that we are not familiar with.  The task is to find something that you have in common with them and write about it.

1. My first visit is to Terri at Reading, Writing and Retirement.  She visited us already for Weekly Geeks, expressing that she didn’t see much in common but did like our gift list for dads.  As I poke around her blog, I do see a couple of things in common for us.  When I look at her sidebar I notice right off that we have politics in common, but I guess that’s not apparent on our Book Dads site.  I notice that one of here current reads is a David Sedaris book and my partner is a David Sedaris fan.
2. Next up, I visited Reading in Appalachia and in a recent Tuesday Thingers post she lists a few books that she wants to read from Library Things popular this month feature. I’d also like to read Brisingr by Christopher Paolini and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
3. Next I headed over to see Edgy at Books Are King simply because Dewey mentioned a gift list category called “Potterphiles in Withdrawal” and I just couldn’t pass up taking a look.  I am definitely a Potterphile in withdrawal.  I noticed in his profile and favorite booklist that we have several favorite books in common.
4. The fourth blog I visited is Worducopia where I see that she is the mother of two boys.  I have one 5 year old boy who sometimes seems like two, at least by the mess he can make anyway.  I also notice she is a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation and so are we, having just returned awhile ago from the Thanksgiving service.
5. Last up is a visit to Naida at The Bookworm, where I discover she is a science fiction fan among other things and so are we and she loves chocolate.  I can’t think of anything better than chocolate.  Among her favorite books that we also share is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Tales from the Dad Side

by Steve Doocy

“Fatherhood is like Wikipedia, some parts based in fact, others just made up along the way,” writes Steeve Doocy in the last chapter of Tales, and it appropriately sums up his book as well.  This is a funny book – as Doocy tells us on the back cover – made funnier by the fact that you can never quite tell when the author is pulling your leg.  Many of his stories have the wacky implausibility unique to life with kids that any father will instantly recognize as utterly truthful.  Others – like the opening story of how he somehow found himself in a strip club the night his son was born – will make you wonder if he’s telling a Whopper, yet this only adds to the book’s charm.

Doocy writes about a range of fatherhood experiences and their attendant conundrums, from helping his kids with their school projects, to giving them “the sex talk”, to sending them off to college.  His three children of course all have unique personalities of their own, so his discussion of each subject is enlivened by their sometimes wildly different reactions to his fatherly ministrations.  Doocy also treats us to remembrances of his relationship with his own father, and reminds us that every father is also a son.  The book is low on moralizing and filled with emotional honesty, portraying how the love and pride we feel for our children is simultaneously intermingled with worries for their safety and about our own adequacy as fathers.  All this and funny too, this book is an enjoyable read for any father.

Excerpt:

July 21, 1987, was the day I became a father.  My wife, Kathy, had gotten pregnant nine months earlier on or around my thirtieth birthday party with things we had around the house.

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061441627
• ISBN-13: 978-0061441622

Grandpa’s Town

by Takaaki Nomura

In this book, translated from the original Japanese edition, little Yuuta and his mother go to visit Grandpa in his town.  He has been living there alone since Grandma died, and they are worried that he is lonely there and want him to come live with them.  But Grandpa’s not very interested in the idea, and soon announces he’s off to the public bath and takes Yuuta with him.  Along the way and at the bath, Yuuta meets many of Grandpa’s local friends and realizes that his Grandpa isn’t really alone after all.

The illustrations in Grandpa’s Town are in a colorful style reminiscent of wood-block printing and depict daily life in a small Japanese town, a culture that will be largely unfamiliar to Western children.  The idea of a public bath in particular is sure to strike children as novel.  But the greatest strength of this book is in the relationship between Yuuta and his Grandpa, which is not overly expressive although Yuuta loves his Grandpa and his Grandpa is proud of him.  Rather, in the way of many men’s relationships, more is conveyed by the time spent together rather than by the words that are spoken.  “Quality time” is important but “Quantity time” is too, especially for boys and their male relatives, and Grandpa’s Town reminds us of this with great eloquence.

Excerpt:

Grandpa and I decided to take the long way home.  Trudging along slowly, slowly, I pushed Grandpa from behind.  “You aren’t alone after all, are you, Grandpa?” I said.  Grandpa looked back over his shoulder at me.  “Hmm hmm…” he agreed happily.

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916291367
• ISBN-13: 978-0916291365

The American Journey of Barack Obama

by The Editors of LIFE Magazine

The early parts of American Journey provide a sweeping and at times overly dramatic biography of Barack Obama that begins with his roots and ends with his victory at the Democratic National Convention.  Yet the most interesting part of the book is the penultimate section, Aspects of Obama.  In this section, twelve writers offer their comments about Obama from a range of perspectives, from Regina Barreca’s “A Clintonista Comes Over”, to Andrei Codrescu’s “Immigrant Song”, to Fay Weldon’s “The View From London”.  Each piece in this collection is brief and well-written, and they provide refreshingly honest and plain-spoken opinions of Obama from a diversity of viewpoints.

But of course the star of any LIFE book is the photography, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.  The photographs in this book tell as much of the story as the text, a fact which of course in some ways speaks to our modern age.  Indeed, many of the pieces in the Aspects section are in some way about the experience of seeing Obama, whether in a newspaper photo, on television, or in person.  And when looking through the book readers will be surely be struck by the many images of fatherhood.  These include not only several pictures of Obama with his father and his grandfather, but many more of him with his two daughters.  In these days of PR and “spin”, and after years of an administration that staged a number of deliberately deceptive photo-ops, it’s hard not to feel cynical about the authenticity of such photos.  Yet in the pages of American Journey, Barack Obama genuinely looks like any other father about the daily business of fatherhood, with its challenges both great and small.  That’s a fine quality in a President-elect, and one which bodes well for the coming administration.

Excerpt:

When millions of his countrymen first encountered the young politician from Illinois four years ago, they knew immediately that they had never seen or heard anyone like him before.  As he spoke at the Democratic convention, his eloquent phrases followed one upon another and rose to an astonishing, inspiring level.  The next morning people everywhere asked one another: “Did you see him?”

We have one copy of this book to giveaway, enter the contest here.

Read Other Reviews:

• The Chronicle Review
• Tripping Toward Lucidity: Estella’s Revenge

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316045608
• ISBN-13: 978-0316045605

Book Giveaway: The American Journey of Barack Obama

This contest is now closed, and the winner is:

• MotherReader

Congratulations, the winner was chosen using Random.org.
Celebrate the making of history by winning a copy of The American Journey of Barack Obama by the Editors of LIFE Magazine.  Book Dads has one copy to give away courtesy of the Hachette Book Group.

Here is a full description from Hachette:

For decades Americans have turned to LIFE to see, understand, and remember the most important events and people of our time. Just
as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama’s life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country’s greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members
themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an
incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers,
including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay
Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find
a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing
witness to a singular, undeniably American story.

The contest ends on Tuesday, December 2nd.  We will announce the winner the following Day.

Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win. No P.O. Boxes please!

How to enter:

For one entry, simply leave a comment below expressing your interest in winning the book.

For three entries, write a post on your blog about this contest with a link back to this contest post.  Comment below with a link to the actual blog post on your blog, not to your main blog url.

Fred Stays With Me

by Nancy Coffelt
Illustrated by Tricia Tusa

The little girl in this story sometimes lives with her mom, and sometimes lives with her dad.  Things are different in her mom’s house and in her dad’s house, but wherever she goes, her dog Fred always stays with her.  But soon Fred is causing trouble at both houses, and her neither parent wants Fred to stay with them.  So it’s up to her to explain that, ”Fred doesn’t stay with either of you.  Fred stays with me!”

This book deals with some challenging issues in a very subtle way.  Though her family’s situation is clear, the words “divorce” or “separation” are never used.  This book also emphasizes the importance of a child’s own feelings and their need for control in the midst of what can be a difficult situation, as well as the importance of working together as a family to solve problems.  Finally, it shows commendable even-handedness in portraying both dad and mom equally and without bias to either parent. The brevity and simplicity of the text adds an additional emotional weight to the story and the illustrations – especially of Fred – are clever and engaging.

Excerpt:

Sometime I live with my mom.
Sometimes I live with my dad.
My dog, Fred, stays with me.

Read other reviews:

• Young Readers
• Kids Lit

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316882690
• ISBN-13: 978-0316882699

The Wolves in the Walls

by Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Dave McKean

Collaborators Gaiman and McKean are back, this time with a children’s book both haunting and whimsical that will resonate with children and adults alike.  The pair, most famous for their work together on The Sandman graphic novel series, spin a tale about Lucy, who hears noises coming from the walls of her house.  No one in her family – with the exception of her pig puppet – believes her claim that there are wolves living inside the walls.  And besides, they tell her, everyone knows that “If the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over.”  But late one night, they do.  Yet far from being over, the adventure is just getting started for this brave little girl and her family.

Gaiman is one of the premier fantasy writers of our time and his talents seem ably suited to children’s books, with their similarity to the comics format in which he made his reputation.  As always, Gaiman’s stories are multilevel and steeped in metaphor, and Wolves is no exception despite being nominally written for children.  For example, the wolves of the story can represent many things besides the night fears of children, including addiction and other destructive forces than can enter an adult’s life.  And children respond to such symbolism instinctively, although the dark nature of the story may prove to be too much for younger children despite the lighter tones inserted by Gaiman.  McKean has illustrated this book in his signature style, which combines drawing, painting, collage and found objects to create images both striking and haunting.  Together, Gaiman and McKean have created a rarity, a children’s book that will be a rich experience for both children and grown adults.

Excerpt:

Lucy heard noises.
The noises were coming from inside the walls.
They were hustling noises and bustling noises.
They were crinkling noises and crackling noises.
They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises.

Read Other Reviews:

• Kidsreads.com
• Greenman Review
• Skillcrane’s Longbox

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 56 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038097827X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380978274

Weekly Geeks: Gift Books for Dads

The holiday season is fast approaching and the giving of books is sure to be a hit with any dad in your life. Here is book giving guide from Book Dads for all kinds of dads.

1. For dads to read to small children:

Daddies Give You Horsey Rides by Abby Levine

This book lists all the things dads do for their children, from giving them horsey rides to helping them when they are sick. Read Review

What Dads Can’t Do by Douglas Wood

This is a fun book showing a dinosaur father explaining all the thing’s that dads can’t do.  Read Review

The Daddy Book by Todd Parr

The books of Todd Parr (creator of the Discovery channel TV show Toddworld) feature fanciful and boldly colored line drawings that instantly appeal to children. Read Review

2. For Grandfathers to read to small children:

Gramps and the Fire Dragon by Bethany Roberts

A book about the power of dreaming, or storytelling, or both.  Read Review

The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr

This whimsical and fun book by Todd Parr is all about the different kinds of grandpas. Read Review

3. For fathers interested in non-fiction books about fatherhood and parenting:

Raising a Son by Don Elium and Jeanne Elium

This is a great read.  It was written by a husband and wife team about their experiences and the experiences of others raising boys. Read Review

Raising Cain by Don Kindlon and Michael Thompson

Raising Cain is one of a number of books that address the challenges of raising boys, but it stands out among them by eschewing both the glib Gender War rhetoric and the underlying political or theological agendas that often characterize other books on this topic. Read Review

4. For adoptive fathers:

We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families by Todd Parr

Todd Parr lends his distinctive picture book style to adoption in his latest book.  Read Review

The Martian Child by David Gerrold

When David decides to adopt a boy from foster care as a single father he’s prepared to deal with the boy’s ADHD, reactive attachment disorder and history of abuse … but he’s not expecting to hear that little Dennis also thinks that he’s actually a Martian.  Read Review

5. For Gay Fathers:

Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood by David Strah and Susanna Margolis

This book is a collection of twenty-four personal stories of gay men who have become fathers, primarily through adoption and foster-adoption, but also through surrogacy and co-parenting.  Read Review

Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is by Abigail Garner

This book surveys and candidly discusses the actual experiences of children raised by GLBT parents who have now become young adults.  Read Review

Queen Vernita’s Visitors

by Dawn Menge
Illustrated by Bobbi Switzer

It’s a tricky business to create entertaining children’s fiction that educates without being overbearing or condescending.  The best books achieve this goal by immersion, the method used in Queen Vernita’s Visitors.  As the story begins, Queen Vernita realizes that it’s been an entire year since she’s seen her friends from the Land of Quails, and decides to invite one friend to visit her in each month of the coming year.  Each succeeding page describes a visit from one of her friends and the fun activities they enjoyed together.  Along the way, it also teaches the names of the months, the number of days in each month, the different seasons, and the days of the week.  The days of the week are repeated on each page of the story, and this is the perfect book for a child who is just learning them and who can also be encouraged to recite them along with a parent.  The artwork is bright and simple and sure to appeal to young eyes, a good accompaniment to a book both fun and educational.

Excerpt:

Vernita was the Queen of the majestic world called Oceaneer.  She lived in a beautiful castle that was covered in ivy and red roses. Vernita loved being the queen but she missed all of her friends from the land of Quails.  She hadn’t seen them in such a long time.

Read Other Reviews:

• Booking Mama
• At Home With Books
• Tara’s View on Books
• Book Critiques
• Books For Kids
• Writers in the Sky
• Lesa’s Book Critiques

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Paperback: 36 pages
• Publisher: Outskirts Press (April 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598007149

Friday Finds: Humor and Narnia

Here are our Friday Finds for this week.

The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller.  We have three copies to giveaway.

Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: Insanely Annoying Modern Things by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur with Brendan Hay.  We have five copies to give away.

Men With Balls by Drew Magary. We have five copies to give away.

Booking Through Thursday: Why Buy Books?

Booking Through Thursday asks: Do you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries? What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY?

Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?

If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

There was a time when we bought many books and belonged to several book clubs, but now we mainly borrow books from the local library, from friends or we get books through Paperback Book Swap.  Having said that, we do still have quite a few books that were bought and we continue to keep.  The process of culliing books from our collection was a sometimes painful process described in a recent Musing Mondays post.

Now when we decide to buy or keep a book, we keep the following things in mind:

1. Is it a book that has profoundly influenced your life in some way?
2. Is it a book you read more than once, or will read again?
3. Is it a book that positively represents who we are as a family?
4. Is it a book that we feel may positively influence our son, or interest him someday?
5. Is it a good deal? and can we swap it? 

Otherwise we don’t buy.

We are hosting some book giveaway contests at Book Dads, check them out.
The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller
and
Men With Balls by Drew Magary
Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur with Brendan Hay

Book Giveaway: The Magician’s Book by Laura Miller

This contest is now closed, and the winners are:

1. Kyle from The Boy Reader
2. Marina from Momma Writes About Books
3. Tricia from The Miss Rumphius Effect

Congratulations, winners were chosen using Random.org.  I am sending an email to each winner, please respond by Mon. December 1st., if I don’t hear from a particular winner by then I will award the book to the next person on the list.

Book Dads is having a book giveaway courtesy of the Hachette Book Group.

Three lucky winners will receive a copy of The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller.

Here is a full description from Hachette:

THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK is the story of one reader’s long, tumultuous relationship with C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Enchanted by its fantastic world as a child, prominent critic Laura Miller returns to the series as an adult to uncover the source of these small books’ mysterious power by looking at their creator, Clive Staples Lewis. What she discovers is not the familiar, idealized image of the author, but a more interesting and ambiguous truth: Lewis’s tragic and troubled childhood, his unconventional love life, and his intense but ultimately doomed friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien.

Finally reclaiming Narnia “for the rest of us,” Miller casts the Chronicles as a profoundly literary creation, and the portal to a life-long adventure in books, art, and the imagination.

The contest ends on Tuesday, November 25th. We will announce the winners the following day.

Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win. No P.O. Boxes please!

How to enter:

For one entry, simply leave a comment here telling us you’d like to win the book.

For three entries, write a post about this contest on your blog with a link back to this post.  You may leave a link to your blog post in the Mr. Linky below.

1. Michele Thornton 2. Holly Cupala 3. avisannschild 4. Clare Bell 5. Marina

6. Bridget Zinn 7. Solvang Sherrie 8. Tricia 9. teacherninja 10. ms_teacher

11. Sherry 12. Kyle 13. The Old Coot

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Wordless Wednesday: Early Snowfall

Teaser Tuesdays: Reading to My Son

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

I may be a little late in the day here for this. We had a nice holiday, time off from work and school and I’m about the read to my son when he finishes his bath. So my current read is from a children’s book and is lines 7 to 12.
The Book is, My Daddy by Susan Paradis.

“My daddy can touch his finger to the moon
and stay up way past midnight
His sneeze is like thunder
and his voice can fill the night.
He always finds his way back home.”

Contest: Win One or Both of These Humorous Books

This contest is now closed, and the winners are:

For a copy of Men With Balls

1. Preston from Me and the Blue Skies
2. Drey from Drey’s House
3. Deidre
4. Teresa W.
5. Tracey B.

For a copy of Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Just Shit

1. Drey from Drey’s House
2. Naida from The Bookworm
3. Tracey B.
4. Cindi
5. Melanie from Cynical Optimism

Congratulations, winners were chosen using Random.org.  I am sending an email to each winner, please respond by Mon. December 1st., if I don’t hear from a particular winner by then I will award the book to the next person on the list.

Book Dads is hosting a book giveaway courtesy of the Hachette Book Group.

Five lucky winners will receive a copy of either one or both of these two humorous books that are not for the easily offended.

Men with Balls: The Professional Athlete’s Handbook by Drew Magary

Here is a full description from Hachette:

This will be the very last book you ever read. Because after you have read this book, you, Good Sir, will know how to be a pro athlete. And pro athletes don’t need books. Or strong family bonds. Or any of that stupid crap. Not when they have ready access to millions of dollars and scores of smoking hot chicks with questionable judgment.

This book will be all you require to cast aside your boring life as some jackass who cruises around bookstores hoping to score grad-school trim. With Men with Balls, you will learn how to:

• Showboat using classical pantomime techniques
• Figure out whether or not a stripper actually fancies you
• Emotionally cope from the emotional fallout of rookie year hazing games
• Find out which free locker room amphetamines will give you a shot of energy, and which will cause you to run down terrified schoolchildren with your Escalade (NOTE: Some do both)
• Avoid media scrutiny by directing beat writers and columnists to the nearest hot buffet

So grab your balls, bookboy. You’re about to become a home-run hitting, steroid-injecting, angry-orgy-having Turbostud. They’re gonna need a whole ocean just to wash your jock.

Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: Insanely Annoying Modern Things by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur with Brendan Hay

Here is a full description from Hachette:

An encyclopedic attack on modern culture so hilariously bitter that it actually becomes uplifting. Based on two runaway UK bestsellers, this new American edition has been ingeniously adapted and features exclusive new material for US audiences by Brendan Hay, a former Daily Show headline producer and contributing writer to America: The Book.

If you hate chick lit, Che Guevara merchandise, pop Kabbalah, cosmetic-surgery-gone-wrong-as-tv-programming, DVDs with ads you can’t skip, or any of a few hundred other insanely annoying modern things, then this book will finally lend credence to your frustrations.

Say NO to the awful ideas, terrible people, useless products, and infuriating doublespeak that increasingly dominates our lives. Never before has there been a book so completely full of shit.

Clearly, it isn’t just you…

The contest ends on Tuesday, November 25th.  We will announce the winners the following day.

Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win. No P.O. Boxes please!

How to enter:

For one entry, simply leave a comment here telling us which book you’d like to win.  You may request one entry for each in the same comment.

For three entries, write a post about this contest on your blog with a link back to this post. Remember to leave a comment below telling us which book or both that you would like to win.  You may leave a link to your blog post in the Mr. Linky below.

1. Preston and this is the real link to my post 2. MotherReader

3. Christine 4. Marina

5. drey

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Musing Mondays: What do we do with all those books?

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS is about the giving & keeping of books!

If you keep your books, where do you keep them? And, if you give them away, who do you give them to? Do you participate in Bookcrossing, BookMooch, PaperbackSwap, or the like? Do you give your old books to family & friends, or donate them? Are any of your books in storage due to not having enough space for them all? Or, are you one of the lucky ones who has their own “library”? Feel free to share pictures, if you have them!

We don’t keep nearly as many books as we once did, and several different things have happened that have resulted in fewer kept books.

1. When my partner and I first moved in together we had very similar tastes in books and a large number of duplicate books.  We went through a sometimes painful process of deciding whose copy was in better condition and kept only one because there just was not enough room in our small apartment.
2. Over a span of several years and several moves we culled the personal library down even farther.  Again, space considerations and the difficulty of moving them made us realize that many of them would never get read again and were just taking up room.  We went through another sometimes painful process of deciding to keep the most important to us and most likely to possibly be read again books.  Most of the books were given away to family, friends and to the library.
3. In the last couple of years we hardly ever even buy a new book anymore unless a really exceptional must have book comes along.  We try to get lots of books from the library and have also been participating in PaperbackSwap.
4. When we moved into the home we own now, we put a lot of plastic bins of books in the basement for later decisions on where to keep them.  Most of them ended up remaining in the basement.  So here comes the really painful part that will make some of you wince.  This past summer we had a really torrential rainfall, the kind of rain that comes with flash flood warnings.  On my way home from work I had to take several detours around flooded streets.  Upon arriving home I found over a foot of water in the basement and some of the bins of books had tipped over and the covers came off.  Unfortunately we had to throw away many of the books that were left.  Check out a post and picture about the flood on our family blog, Green Dads.

Weekly Geeks: Fun Facts about Todd Parr

This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors.

The author we choose for our very first Weekly Geeks post is Todd Parr.

Todd’s books for children are very colorful, using bold, bright primary and secondary colors.  They always portray the many different kinds of families and family members there are.

Todd’s website is just as colorful as his books.

Also take a look at Todd’s author page on Library Thing where he has been favorited by 659 members.

An animated children’s TV program called ToddWorld on TLC and the Discovery Channel features the colorful artistic style of his books and he created the program along with writer Gerry Renert.

Here is a video from YouTube of ToddWorld.

We reviewed the following Todd Parr books:

We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families
The Family Book
The Grandpa Book
The Daddy Book

He is one our favorite authors of book for young children.

We used colors from his book covers in our new site design, come and check out the front page at Book Dads.

Purchase books by Todd Parr at Amazon.com

Here are some favorite authors from other Weekly Geeks:

• Momma Writes About Books - Mercedes Lackey
• Harmony - Anne McCaffrey
• Fizzy Thoughts - Neil Gaiman

Me and My Dad!

by Alison Ritchie
Illustrated by Alison Edgson

This rhyming book is filled with warm watercolors that wonderfully express the affection between a little bear and his dad.  Bear and his dad are shown swimming, running and even dancing in the rain.  A happy book that celebrates the special physical bond between fathers and children, and an encouragement for fathers and sons to get out and be active together.
Other Reviews:

• Books For Kids Blog

Excerpt:

“My dad is the best daddy bear there could be. We’re together forever-my dad and me.”

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 28 pages
• Publisher: Good Books (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561485659

Wordless Wednesday: 11/5/2008

Gramps and the Fire Dragon

by Bethany Roberts
Illustrated by Melissa Iwai

Jesse and his grandfather sit in a rocking chair together, staring into a roaring fireplace.  As they watch shapes form and dissolve within the dancing flames, soon they see the shape of an apple tree.  In a moment, Jesse and Gramps find themselves in the world of the apple tree and then – yikes! – chased by a fire dragon.  Will Jesse find a way to save himself and Gramps?  A book about the power of dreaming, or storytelling, or both.

Excerpt:

It’s bedtime,” said Jesse.
“But I’m not sleepy.”
“Me neither,” said Gramps.
And they rocked in front of the fire,
back and forth,
back and forth,

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (August 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395698499

Cool Daddy Rat

by Kristyn Crow
Illustrated by Mike Lester

Cool Daddy Rat goes out every night to play jazz in New York City, leaving his son Ace behind with Mama Rat.  But on this special night, Ace stows away in Daddy Rat’s bass case, and spends a night out in the city with his dad.  This book rings with the rhythms of jazz, both in the scat that is interspersed with the text and in the wild energy of the drawings.

Big city kids – New Yorkers or otherwise – will recognize the settings, and the book is a good conversation starter for talking about any dad’s work (even if he’s an accountant and not a cool jazz musician!)

Excerpt:

Cool Daddy Rat
shooby dooby doo dat
grabbed his hat in his rat flat
zowie zowie zoo zat
and said good-bye to his spry guy.

Read other reviews:

• Provo City Library Childrens Book Review
• Literate Lives

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (March 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399243755
• ISBN-13: 978-0399243752

Book Recommendation Contest Winner

The Book Dads Recommendation Contest is over and a winner has been chosen.  We used the totally random and scientific method of having our 5 year old son choose a name from a bowl. Don’t you just love the toothless grin?

And the winner is …………..

Callista from SMS Book Reviews

Callista contributed a very nice guest review of I Sleep at Redlights: A True Story of Life After Triplets by Bruce Stockler.

We had a lot of great recommendations, most of which are listed here in a Friday Finds post.  There were two other guest reviews submitted, one by Lew K. a review of Raising a Son by Don Elium & Jeanne Elium and another from William at Pick of the Literate for Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard.

We Belong Together

by Todd Parr

Todd Parr lends his distinctive picture book style to adoption in his latest book.  Every two or three pages, Parr writes “We belong together because …” and then fills in the blank in different heartfelt – and sometimes whimsical – ways.  The pictures show families of all different kinds (including same-gender and different color), and in a rare Author’s Note at the beginning, Parr encourages parents to change the pronouns in the text to fit their family.

This book doesn’t discuss the facts of adoption or even use the word “adoption”, but instead deals with the feelings behind adoption and wanting to be a family.  In this way, it deals with the essential truth of adoption better than any book that focuses on the facts of the matter.  This also makes it a good book for reading to very young adopted children who may not yet know the details of their adoption, and speaking as an adoptive father I was unable to read this book to my son without getting all choked up.

Excerpt:

We belong together because, you needed a home and I had one to share.

Read other Reviews:

• Teens Read Too

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; Library Binding edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316016683
• ISBN-13: 978-0316016681