The greatest books for young readers featuring dads

A special story told (as Jez Alborough brilliantly does) in few words and with rhymes that read just right. A young dog called Sid is so filled with happiness that he flies! But he can’t convince anyone that this has happened. He’s laughed at. “…dogs don’t fly – it can’t be done,” says his teacher. “Dogs don’t fly!” repeat his friends. This leaves Sid alone and sad. But his father comes by. He asks what’s wrong, and it saves the day.

Sid’s dad believes in him. He understands Sid’s free spirit because he shares it. And these two things (literally) lift Sid up again. It’s a wonderful image of the magic a father-son bond can do.

It’s raining. Pete can’t go out to “play ball with the guys.” So he’s in a bad mood. His father thinks it might cheer Pete up to be made into a pizza. He’s right, of course! Dad kneads him and twirls him up in the air. He sprinkles on cheese (actually torn-up bits of paper) and puts him in the oven (actually the sofa).

This is a celebration of the parents’ trick of distracting a grumpy child with a bit of zany humour. (Best trick in the book, as far as I’m concerned.) And what a wonderfully loving, inventive, energetic dad William Steig has created! Pete laughs “like crazy”. And the sun comes out at the end.

One of many memorable picture books from a master of creating dads, mums, children, and all human beings. (Also fairies, in fact.) A family goes walking to a green hill in the city to celebrate baby Oscar’s “six-month birthday.” Bob Graham paints the world as a jumble of different lives, made beautiful by the warmth that can come between them.

In this story, there’s particular attention to moments of grace that children and parents can conjure up, if they want. I love the dirty old-town setting, with its colourful graffiti. And I like the spiky-haired dad. He makes the sandwiches. He gets on with the stuff of the family day. He does it with love. And he’s involved in one of my favourite of all picture book endings. When the kids are asleep, he pushes back the furniture and dances with Mum.

A brilliant book (who would dare publish this today?) by the author of the equally brilliant Ben’s Trumpet. In a South African township, some children expect their migrant-labourer fathers to arrive home after 10 months away. They wait, in a celebratory mood at first, but with increasing tiredness and uncertainty as the day and the night go by. They tell stories to stay awake. But the youngest falls asleep. A truck pulls up. It’s not their dads. Then the day dawns. And, with it, the fathers arrive.

There’s hardly any characterisation of the dads. They come to life through the children’s excitement and persistence. So does the deep emotion of an absent father returning. My boys have often chosen this book at bedtime. And they know it well enough to look up curiously when the dads arrive - to check if there are tears of happiness in my eyes. There usually are.

A longer story that is illustrated with great skill and feeling by PJ Lynch. (And it’s another one that brings tears to my eyes most times I read it!) Jonathan Toomey is a wood carver who has moved to a village far from where his wife and baby died. So this is not a typical picture book dad. He is solitary and grieving.

The widow McDowell and her son, Thomas, are newcomers to the village. In their move, they have lost a precious nativity set. So they ask Jonathan Toomey if he will carve them a new one. The carpenter reluctantly agrees. His heart warms to both Thomas and Thomas’s mother. He carves a beautiful replacement nativity set. In the making, he faces his terrible loss. And the final, beautiful image is of the three of them walking side by side on Christmas day with laughter in their eyes.