Dad By My Side

By Soosh

Browsing for a good Father's Day book, I stumbled upon Dad By My Side by author illustrator Soosh. The first thing to strike me was the vast difference in size between the burly, husky dad and the petite girl. In an author note, Soosh explains how this is on purpose in order to accentuate the way the daughter views her father -- as a sanctuary, a force of all good, and a source of wisdom. Shown in a variety of activities, dad is constantly present and willing to try his hand at anything, from hula hooping to sewing a dress to cheering each other up when they're sad. 

Warm watercolour vignettes were initially posted on Instagram and quickly garnered over 2 million views per week, propelling the publication of Dad By My Side. Soosh now has her second book out, Mermaid and Me, and it's equally charming.

Carmela Full of Wishes

Carmela Full of Wishes

By Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
It’s Carmela’s birthday! Already it’s a great day when she wakes up because she's finally old enough to accompany her big brother on his errands. The two head out into their busy, Hispanic neighbourhood, past street vendors, the Elote Lady, the 99 cent store, and graffiti on the walls. Along the way, Carmela finds a dandelion, and her imaginative mind goes wild with the endless wishes she could make by blowing on it. As the two siblings go out scootering, it’s fun for Carmela, but it’s not a choice they have as their mother works in housekeeping for a fancy hotel, and their father is a day laborer who is no longer home. Carmela soon becomes worried that she’ll make the wrong wish on her dandelion puff, but her brother ultimately shows her that when one dream gets crushed, there is always hope. 

 

Illustrator Robinson portrays the wishes Carmela considers as papel picado decorations, like those hung for her birthday. Her wishes include a candy machine, her mother being able to sleep in one of the hotel beds she makes every day, and her father getting his papers fixed so he could come home. This is the second de la Peña–Robinson collaboration after Last Stop on Market Street and it is just as tremendous and important. It touches on immigration, class, and loss without dwelling on them. Carmela’s Spanish-speaking community is most certainly portrayed as a vibrant place of possibility, as Robinson’s acrylic painted collage cutouts show street vendors, workers in the fields, and sweeping views of the sea. Skillfully designed and developed, Carmela’s story radiates. 

The Big Orange Splot

The Big Orange Splot

By Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Mr. Plumbean lives on a street where all the houses look the same. Everybody liked it that way. "This is a neat street," they would say, but everything changes when a seagull flying overhead drops a big, orange splot of paint on Mr. Plumbean's roof. (No one knows why he was carrying the bucket of paint.)

At first Mr Plumbean mutters that he will need to repaint, but the more and more his neighbours urge him to do so, he realizes he doesn’t want to have a regular house. He takes the plunge and decides to paint his house to reflect his colourful dreams. "Mr. Plumbean's house was like a rainbow. It was like a jungle. It was like an explosion" and it made people furious. "Plumbean has popped his cork, flipped his wig, blown his stack, and dropped his stopper." One by one, the neighbours sent each other to go talk some good sense into the man. And one by one, another house on the street exploded into people’s colourful dreams. There were castles, ships, and crocodiles!
 

This is the story of a man embracing his individuality in a conformist society. The message that it is brave and good to break away from conformity and embrace one’s own individuality is a really fun one to learn with Mr. Plumbean!

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners

 

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners

By Joanna Ho

When a little girl notices her eyes look different from her friends’ eyes, she wonders why she has to be different. They all have big, round eyes "like sapphire lagoons with lashes like lace trim on ballgowns". She realizes that her eyes are like her family's eyes, and she slowly gathers strength and power in the knowledge that mother, her grandmother, and her little sister all have eyes that "kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future." Indeed, she is set down the path of self love, strength and acceptance.  

We all need stories like Eyes That Kiss in the Corners no matter what our race. If our eyes kiss in the corners, then this book can act as a mirror, a place one can see themselves. If our eyes do not kiss in the corners, then stories such as this one act as a window to the world and facilitate acceptance.

The illustrator, Dung Ho, presents vibrant images that have been digitally created and pair beautifully with the poetic prose. The author, Joanna Ho has an author page where she talks more about her own struggle with not feeling as if she fit into the world's standard of beauty. As she explains, this is essentially a book about love. "It is the story of the love shared between generations, the love we must develop for ourselves, and the love that we use to create change in the world."