Daddy Did I Ever Say? I Love You, Love You, Every Day

A little girl explains to her father why she loves him so very much.

A cute, curly-haired, kindergarten-aged girl opens the story by asking her father if she’s ever told him how much she loves him. She loves him, she explains, because of how he plays, tickles, squeezes, chases, even roughhouses with her. She loves him because whenever she’s afraid at night, she knows she can always find him, and he’ll make her feel better. He takes care of her, picking her up when she falls down and fixing her hair and helping her get dressed in the morning. Her mother sometimes disapproves of the things the little girl and her father do together. She thinks they play too roughly, and when her husband does her daughter’s hair and picks out her clothes, it’s quite the disaster! But the little girl doesn’t care; she loves the way she looks because her father helped her look this way. And at night, when she gets sleepy, he wipes away her sleepy tears and tucks her into bed. The idea behind the story of the little girl and her doting father is charming, although the execution may fall just a bit flat. The verse Cobb (Do Pirates Go To School?, 2010) has penned is appealing and rhymes prettily at times, but elsewhere rhyme and syntax have a tendency to feel somewhat forced. That said, the sentiment is sweet and the text is simple enough to read aloud with the youngest of readers. Van Wagoner’s illustrations are eye-catching, though it’s the little girl’s expression that shines through on every page. The colors are perhaps a bit muted, but the text easily stands out and works well enough with the illustrations.

A few reworked lines and some brightened colors would likely boost this charming tale from “good” to “great.”