My Father Is Taller than a Tree

From Booklist
A rhyming text describes the commonplace things a boy can do with his father: “Pop shows me how to ride a bike. / I’m too grown-up now for a trike.” (Librarians will especially like the last one: “Papa reads to me every night / until he says that’s all, sleep tight.”) Although a first-person voice is used throughout, each spread depicts a different boy and dad, including a blind man and diverse ethnic groups. The bottom third of each double-page spread is a four-panel strip detailing the described activity; for example, the strip for “Pa waits for me when I go slow / because the streets are deep with snow” has the dad pulling the boy on a sled, the boy making snow angels and then tasting the snow, and the two of them sharing hot cocoa. Halperin’s soft palette reinforces the caring feeling between the 13 father-son pairs. The final spread is a montage of all the things the boys will do with their own children one day. Preschool-Grade 1. --Julie Cummins

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1—Short, simple rhymes are highlighted by Halperin's wonderfully expressive, soft yet colorful crayon and pencil drawings. Each of the 13 diverse father/son duos is pictured on a spread in a large illustration accompanied by four small ones, showing the two sharing an activity, such as raking leaves, biking, or spending a day in the park. The pictures could stand alone with their gentle, loving depictions, and they are the focal point of this book. The uneven, singsong sentences are simple enough for early readers: "Dad knows the times I like to hide/and when to call me back inside./Pop doesn't need to buy me stuff./Just being with him is enough." Though the rhymes are unexceptional, the illustrations make this book a charming celebration of fathers, dads, pops, papas, and pas.—Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
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