Ashleigh Baron (text) and Martina Heiduczek (illustrator), What do you Call your Dad?, HarperCollins, July 2024, 32 pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780733343476
A dad can be many things. He can also have many names – Abbi, Papi and Tama are but a few, each unique to its country of origin.
To children, dads can be a cook, a doctor, a playmate, or just simply their hero. What do you call your dad? shines a beautiful spotlight on the many roles fathers play in the lives of their children.
Ashleigh Barton highlights all the wonderful ways fathers contribute to family life with clever rhyming text. Each page ends in a moving affirmation of their name,
Up they go, higher and higher…
Basuki calls his dad Ayah.
Most evident throughout is that regardless of their station in life, fathers play an important role in families.
Double-page spread illustrations by Martina Heiduczek span the book and are vibrant and diverse and show the significance of the small moments in everyday life that can shape and impact a child.
With plenty of conversation openers for young children to share the different ways they say dad, What do you call your dad? is heart-warming, inclusive and honours dads all around the world.
Ashleigh and Martina are frequent collaborators on picture books celebrating families and traditions from across the globe.
Reviewed by Shelley Stephens
Read Julie Deane’s review here.
