Dani Vee (Text) and Marina Verola (illustrator), My Epic Dad! Takes Us Camping, Larrikin House, February 2023, 24 pp., RRP $19.99 (hbk) ISBN 9781922503909
We’re a little way out from Father’s Day in Australia but tuck this title away in the files for future reference. My Epic Dad! Takes Us Camping will be a lovely new addition to a school or family library to help shine a light on the important role dads play in the lives of their kids.
The story starts off with unwilling siblings being dragged into good-for-the-soul camping trip organised by their keen dad. However, things start to go wrong before they’ve even finished setting up, as Dad seems to have placed their tent directly over an ants’ nest. Every activity the family attempts leads to more problems – for Dad. During the bushwalk he is set upon by bees. At the swamp he falls in. He can’t every stay safe toasting marshmallows. Then, due to an equipment malfunction the family resort to sleeping in the car. It seems that the whole outing has been a fiasco, a flop, a failure – or has it?
The Dad in this book is somewhat of a Daddy Pig, those across Peppa Pig will know what I mean. He is determined, confident and well-meaning, but failures and missteps seem to be his lot. I know my husband resents this portrayal of a dad as bumbling and incompetent. However every so often, in the eyes of kids, dads are super-capable, problem-solving heroes, so they find it funny, and probably more relatable, for a fictional dad to come off second best.
Many families will relate to the setting and circumstances of this book. Don’t we all have tales of family activities, events or holidays that, despite being planned with the greatest of intentions, fall in a heap and implode? Yet these ‘failures’ often yield the strongest memories, proving that connection doesn’t require perfection.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell
