Some Dads...

Nick Bland (author/illustrator)

Scholastic Press, Australia: August 2011

ISBN: 9781741697933

Genres: humour, picture book

Issues: family

'There are some dads who worry/ And some dads who hurry.' Nick Bland uses comical animal characters to explore the idea that fatherhood is influenced by the personality of each father – and that therefore each father is different.

Yes, it's been carefully released to target the Father's Day market but Nick Bland has created a whimsical picture book that encourages young readers to celebrate their relationship with their father and accept them for the people they are – hurries, worriers, sporty, naughty, or those that 'just brighten your day.'

Bland is a talented illustrator and his pictures invariably contain a comical element that will delight all readers but especially the highly visual. In Some Dads,,,, Bland's use of animal characters is particularly apt – there is a wonderfully affectionate but slightly satirical edge to each illustration. The 'sporty dad' is a boggle-eyed frog; the 'dad in a hurry' is a polar bear – think of those wonderful tummy slides down snowhills that we see on documentaries about the Arctic.

Definitely a book to share, Some Dads is one that children – and possibly fathers – will want to revisit often.

Great fun.