The Byron Barton of feelings and relationships offers a gallery of Dads at work and play, all drawn with thick lines and intense, contrasting colors against monochromatic backgrounds. The message is one of unity in diversity: “Some daddies wear suits. . . . Some daddies wear two different socks. . . . Some daddies work at home. . . . Some daddies work far away. . . . All daddies like to watch you sleep.” A simultaneously published companion volume, The Mommy Book (ISBN: 0-316-60827-0) runs along the same track, though with a text that only partially overlaps. With but one exception in The Mommy Book, the figures are all smiles, which makes for a certain monotony, but Parr frees his mommies and daddies from conventional gender roles, while depicting them and their children with orange, yellow, purple, and green faces, sometimes within the same family. Recent ex-toddlers will be drawn to these sunny, colorful consciousness-raisers. (Picture book. 2-4)
