DADDY WILL BE THERE

Grambling (Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? Please!?, 1995) conjures a world of intimacy between a daughter and her father, but the atmosphere is profoundly melancholic. “I play alone in my room. I build with my blocks. I read my picture books. I hug my rag doll. I look down the hall into the kitchen . . . I know Daddy will be there.” Safekeeping and independence aren’t so much evoked here as loneliness: “I play alone in my backyard . . . I look up at the window . . . I know Daddy will be there.” And indeed he is, looming, protective. Through playtime, a birthday party, and the first day at school, so fixed is the child upon her father’s presence that the joy of the moment is all but lost on her. Ineffable sadness radiates off the page; with no mother present, what is communicated is a tacit sense of loss. The illustrations confirm that sorrow; even the cover painting looks like a snapshot encased in ice. (Picture book. 4-10)