Dads Read Too

 DADS READ: “Lost. Found.”  by author Marsha Diane Arnold and illustrator Matthew Cordell explores the the meaning of being "lost" and "found" through the journey of a scarf that gets blown away from a bear, later "found" by some raccoons, only to be "lost" through conflict.  The scarf gets "lost" and "found" over and over again.  "Lost" through an unfortunate snag of a branch that pulled it off a beavers head.  "Lost" though an accidental fall.  "Lost" through forgetfulness.  "Lost" through play.  Each time it is "lost", it is "found" again by a new party, until the scarf is destroyed when all of the parties rediscover the scarf at the same time.  Eventually it is "found" while they work together to knit the threads back together and find community in the process.   The variations on "loss" made me reflect deeply on the times I've e...

JER: my good friend since 7th grade - @mshenriksen suggested this book: “ Hilda and the Troll ” by Luke Pearson.  It has unexplained creatures, adventure, rocks that look like Trolls, actual Trolls, and just the right amount of vulgarity.  Hilda enjoys sleeping in a tent outdoors in the rain since it makes her “coziness canvas thin”, and also learns that placing bells on the noses of Trolls is now considered a “barbaric practice”. My friend Mike summed it up best, “it is an interesting mystical adventure story, and the hero just happens to be a girl.” It isn’t pushing that storyline or detail, it just is.  I found it really refreshing. (NOTE: Ejler is an aspiring graffiti artist, and she has unfortunately left her mark all over this cover.)

JER: my spouse, Mallory Lake @americanhygge, found this really great book a while ago - “ Your Body Belongs to You ” by author Cornelia Spelman and illustrator Teri Weidner which is a great introduction into the concept of consent and bodily autonomy for children.  It empowers children to decide when and how they express affection, it models how parents can reinforce their decisions, and it makes it clear that only parents and doctors should be touching them on the “places on your body covered by a bathing suit”

JER: “Dog Loves Books” by Louise Yates is part of a series that Lake, Mallory, and I have grown to love. “Dog Loves Counting”, “Dog Loves Fairy Tales”  (which is my favorite), “Dog Loves Drawing”, they are all great, and are quick to get my 5-year-old giggling.

JER: “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2” by authors Francesca Cavallo & Elena Favilli - when I saw this second volume, I was worried it would pale in comparison to the first volume, but it ended up being just as good with famous people I was surprised missed out on the first volume, like Billie Jean King, J.K. Rowling, and Georgia O’Keefe and others I am just learning about, like Virginia Hall - America’s greatest female spy, who had a wooden leg she called “Cuthbert”, and was “responsible for destroying four bridges, derailed several freight trains, blown up a railway line, cut down telephone wires, and captured hundreds of enemy soldiers” during World War II.  I love how each entry is full of loads of detail in only a single page of text and a single page of illustration.  But it makes me even happier to be able to give my two daughters a wide array of heroes to emulate

JER: “ Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space ” by author Dr. Dominic Walliman and artist Ben Newman is a perfect children’s instruction book on SPACE.  It is written by a Quantum Device Physicist who used to work with my friend @jed.whittaker, and it does an amazing job explaining the fundamentals of space in a way that is relatable and easy to understand.  It goes into the evidence for the Big Bang, the fusions process on the Sun, and how black holes form - perfectly timed to talk about the first ever picture taken of a black hole by the team including Dr. Katie Bouman.

JER: “ Star Stories ” by Illustrator Andy Wilx and Author Anita Ganeri explores the stories that were inspired by the stars.  The last several years, I have become more and more fascinated with stars and the our inter-connectivity with the stars. “We are all made of stardust. It sounds like a line from a poem, but there is some solid science behind this statement too: almost every element on Earth was formed at the heart of a star. . . . During a supernova, when a massive star explodes at the end of its life, the resulting high energy environment enables the creation of some of the heaviest elements including iron and nickel. The explosion also disperses the different elements across the universe, scattering the stardust which now makes up planets including Earth.” - Physics.org