DADDY AND BEN TOGETHER

by Miriam B. Stecher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 1981

It's a promising notion, nowadays, for a little photo-story: Ben's working mother has ""to go away for a few days""--how will Ben and his father (good buddies, we've seen) get along by themselves? Unfortunately, Mommy's parting words strike a false, stagy note--""Remember to laugh a lot""--that doesn't just die out. Ben and Daddy begin to rub each other the wrong way--sometimes over trifles, sometimes quite contrivedly (""Daddy got sleepy first. He stopped reading Ben's favorite storybook after just a few pages""). And when both are wondering ""Why are we having such a hard time?,"" Ben remembers ""what was missing""--and makes Daddy laugh. So they start having fun together again: and when Mommy arrives--this is rather a nice touch--they're both dressed up (in shirt and tie). . . but she still knows which is which. A kind of a toss-up, then: a recognizable, increasingly-familiar situation handled more clumsily (and some-what less helpfully) than it might have been.

Pub Date: Aug. 11, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1981

Categories: CHILDREN'S