Poor, distracted Papa Bombola is distressed looking for his missing “darling daughter.” He looks in the cow shed, the hen pen, the pond and the pig sty, forgetting she’s on his back in her baby carrier. Sitting on the ground and tearfully trying to remember where he safely placed her, he’s surprised to see her crawling toward him when she wriggles out. Oversized, full-page cartoon-style characters outlined in pen and ink, colored with pastels or crayons, bring out the humorous situation. The location of the missing daughter is revealed immediately while the slightly uneven rhyming text conveys Papa’s desperation as words and pictures come together to tell the whole story. Children will enjoy being in on the joke with all the animals, join in with the repetitious phrase “where’s my darling daughter,” and offer smiles all around at the joyful reunion. Nifty fodder for the predictable and patterned books collection. (Picture book. 2-4)
