It's Great Being a Dad

by Dan Bar-el, Gina Perry (Illustrator)

Overview

A celebration of the best kind of dad: the kind that's willing to join in the fun.


A gang of mythical creatures is roaming around a magical land having a great time, until Bigfoot gets his foot stuck in a tree trunk and Unicorn gets her horn impaled on a table and Robot's saw-arm gets rusted into position. But have no fear! Dad is there to fix things--even when a Sneaky Flying Alligator Pirate steals the Fairy Queen Ballerina Doctor's wand.

A hilarious story about imagination, play and the best parts about being a dad.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770496057
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,218,446
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

DAN BAR-EL is an award-winning children's author, educator and storyteller who has published chapter books, picture books, and graphic novels.Over the past twenty-one years, he has worked with children ages 3 to 13 as a school age childcare provider, a preschool teacher, a creative drama and a creative writing teacher. Dan lives in Vancouver with Dominique, and Sasha, the best cat in the known universe.

GINA PERRY graduated from Syracuse University, worked as a compositor in animation, and as an art director creating products for the scrapbooking market.Today she lives, works, and raises a family in New Hampshire, where trees are the tallest obstacles to the sea. She likes yarn and table tennis.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/17/2017
“It’s great being a unicorn,” boasts a pink specimen with a rainbow horn. “Who wouldn’t want to be a unicorn?” Bigfoot and a robot make similar claims, but each creature runs into a snag (“What’s not to like about being a robot? Rain, that’s what!”), requiring intervention. After these beings and others are revealed to be a crew of kids playing in the yard, a resourceful father steps in to save the day. Perry’s wide-eyed, brightly colored fantasy creations wonderfully evoke a pretend-play world where anything can happen but plenty still goes awry, and Bar-el’s (Audrey ) deadpan narrative delivers laughs on every page. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. Illustrator’s agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

One of School Library Journal's Ultimate Children’s Literature Illustrator Gift Guide 2018

PRAISE FOR It's Great Being a Dad:

"Perry’s wide-eyed, brightly colored fantasy creations wonderfully evoke a pretend-play world where anything can happen but plenty still goes awry, and Bar-el’s (Audrey [Cow]) deadpan narrative delivers laughs on every page." --Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

"[A] very different kind of celebration of Father's Day: one which revolves around a unicorn, a ballerina, and a helpful father . . . A zany set of encounters challenges even this special father in a fun story with unpredictable characters and dilemmas." --Midwest Book Review

"The imaginations of our children are as diverse as their personalities. Whether they’re unicorns, Bigfoot, robots or fairy queen doctors, they all need rescuing from time to time. And the greatest one in the land, who comes to save the day, is Dad! Who wouldn’t want to be a dad?" --Story Monsters Ink Magazine

PRAISE FOR Audrey (Cow):

"Move aside Wilbur and Babe. There's a new farmyard hero in town, and she has no desire to end up hamburger . . . Part Great Escape, part Hatchet, part Charlotte's Web, all wonderful." --Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

"Thoroughly charming." --Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

"[P]urely delightful . . . At its heart, Audrey (Cow) encourages kids to think even as it entertains - the mark of wonderful children's literature." --Starred Review, Quill & Quire

"This is no simple farm story; it is a powerful tale that takes a philosophical stance against today's meat industry . . . A unique approach to a sensitive topic." --Starred Review, School Library Journal  

From the Publisher

2017-03-20
The finer points of various jobs are explored in this tribute to…dads?"It's great being a unicorn. I love being a unicorn. Who wouldn't want to be a unicorn?" The bright, cartoon, rainbow-bedecked spread hardly seems like it belongs in a book about being a dad. Ditto the spreads about being Bigfoot, a robot, the Loch Ness Monster, and a "fairy queen ballerina doctor." For each of the characters, there are positives and negatives to their roles. For instance, the unicorn's horn gets in the way of grazing and eating cake off a table, which subsequently gets stuck on said horn. Bigfoot tries to come to the rescue, but it has challenges of its own. And so on. It's not until the magic wand of the fairy queen ballerina doctor is snatched by a "sneaky flying alligator pirate" that dads are even mentioned. A turn of the page reveals a dark-skinned dad standing amid a scene of imaginative play: it's great being a dad, as dads can fix it all. What's not to like? "Sudden makeovers." Perry's gouache and Photoshop illustrations clue readers in only on the final spreads, the kids' clever clothing and costuming choices making their characters come to life. Only one child is white; the rest are various shades of brown, though all have distractingly stylized noses. The title doesn't really match the content, though it may spark readers' own imaginations. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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