Book Bites: Father's Day Fun


Roll out the wheelbarrow. You’re going to need it to hold the barrow-load of beaut books tossing around to share with Dad this Father’s Day. These are some of the best funny-bone-tickling picture books around right now plus I’ve thrown in something that helps Dad maintain his ‘legendary’ status. As if he needed any help…


Dad Hacks: 101 Easy Tips to Save Families Time and Money
Celebratory chippie, Rob Palmer, has thrown together a truly gob-stopping compendium of DIY hacks, many originating from his hugely successful YouTube Channel. Conveniently grouped into categories that cover every skill from surviving life around the home with kids, DIY basics, the great outdoors and even baking, I tell you, this page-by-page guide is easy to read and understand. Best of all, the hacks actually work! I love Palmer’s down-to-earth, laconic chatty style. 

 He shares his survival secrets (a few words of backstory accompany many of his tips) with sincerity born from experience (having three young kids of his own). There are jokes, recipes and a host of other handy ‘how-tos’ listed in this must-have gift for dad. Although we all (well many of us) may have heard of the fail-safe Lemonade Scone recipe, it sure is refreshing to see it included by a bloke in a book for blokes. Bonza!

 Title: Dad Hacks: 101 Easy Tips To Save Families Time and Money
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia, $29.99
Publication Date: July 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760783389
For ages: 15 – 101!
Type: Non Fiction Self-Help

 Buy the Book: Pan Macmillan, Boomerang Books


Happy Farter’s Day: A Celebration of Fatherhood

Tim Miller and Matt Stanton (professional fart-book creators) team up again in an explosively colourful examination of one of dads’ more questionable attributes, the humble bottom eruption. One kid is anxious to do his dad proud when a group of his mates compare the various qualities and virtues of a decent bum toot. Stonking good fun and let’s face it, it’s funny because...well it's shamelessly, unavoidably, disparagingly TRUE!
Title: Happy Fater’s Day: A Celebration of Fatherhood
Author: Tim Miller
Illustrator: Matt Stanton
Publisher: ABC Books, $16.99
Publication Date: July 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780733339035
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: HarperCollins, Booktopia


 My Dad Snores
Another exuberant celebration of yet another of dad’s unappealing behaviours. Arguably more detrimental than the bottom burp, the steam-train impact of snoring can ruin sleep and destroy sympathy for the perpetrator. Williamson’s verse can be sang but is just as easily read as one father’s poor afflicted family ponder how to stem the awful nasal maelstrom that rattles and shakes their nerves and home. Carnavas’ illustrations are spot on the money hilarious.

 Title: My Dad Snores
Author: John Williamson
Illustrator: Peter Carnavas
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia, $19.99
Publication Date: August 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780143793793
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: Penguin Random House, Readings


My Dad is a Dragon
Damon Young’s picture book serial celebrations of the family tree are colourful, rip roaring fun. Now finally, the limelight shines on dads. Effortlessly divergent and beautifully supported by Carnavas’ energetically cute illustrations, this picture book is deserving of multiple adverbs and is a triumphant recognition of a slew of lifestyles, ethnicities, jobs and dads (even bears). Visually goofy and lyrically comic, My Dad is a Dragon is a genuine read-aloud joy. Highly recommended fun.

 Title: My Dad is a Dragon
Author: Damon Young
Illustrator: Peter Carnavas
Publisher: UQP, $24.95
Publication Date: August 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780702260490
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: UQP, Boomerang Books


There’s Only One Dad Like You
If you’re after a less ribald tribute to your father child relationship, consider this humbly delightful proclamation that there’s only one dad like you. Every unique, quirky, dare-devilish, lovable trait dad possesses is beautifully mentioned in light rhyming verse that lilts through Racklyeft’s sublime watercolour illustrations. Animal fathers denote each fatherly quality ultimately reminding us what superb heroes, friends and guides fathers really are.

Title: There’s Only One Dad Like You
Author: Jess Racklyeft
Illustrator: Jess Racklyeft
Publisher: Affirm Press, $19.99
Publication Date: July 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781925870534
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: Booktopia, Boomerang Books


Dear Grandpa

Simpson employs the clever use of the epistolary style of storytelling through the use of letters to convey the heart of this picture book story. Surprisingly, despite only brief, note-length exchanges between young Henry and his Grandpa who lives many miles away from his grandson, huge amounts of emotion and information are shared; brutally honest realistic facts by Henry countered by Grandpa's measured and enigmatic responses, all beautifully book-ended and illustrated in crisp colourful watercolour and pencils. A funny, insightful and heart-tugging look at family relationships and love across the miles with a good dose of science thrown in, as well. Loved, loved, loved it.

Highly recommended to share with every generation of fatherhood.
Title: Dear Grandpa
Author: Kate Simpson
Illustrator: Ronojoy Ghosh
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Children’s, $24.99
Publication Date: August 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781760523435
For ages: 4 – 8
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: Allen & Unwin, Boomerang Books


How Not To Annoy Dad
Shamelessly funny and true, this latest picture book by husband wife team easily trumps former efforts. Suitably bolstered by McKenzie’s laugh-out-loud illustrations, this is the perfect prescription for a fuss free, tantrum- avoiding, best-intentioned, loo-abusing, love-instilled Father’s Day – not! A genuinely hilarious focus on the fractured day to day life of young families.

 Title: How Not To Annoy Dad
Author: Dave Hughes & Holly Ife
Illustrator: Heath McKenzie
Publisher: Scholastic Press, $17.99
Publication Date: August 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781760663735
For ages: 3 – 7
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: Scholastic Australia,


A Dinosaur Ate Dad’s Hair
A fantastical trip of falsehoods unfolds as one father attempts to deflect his kids’ questions about his baldness. Improbable as it seems, he assures them a dinosaur ate it. With relentless investigation and insistence, his children dismiss this flimsy explanation and press him into more increasingly ridiculous confessions: he plucked it out to make a blanket for them, he turned it into a rope ladder to rescue a drowning pirate, he gave it to Uncle Dave. Finally, his lies fall by the wayside in exactly the same fashion as his hair. But to his kids, this seems the most ludicrous explanation of them all. Why would it just fall out?

 This picture book screams silliness that almost smothers the ‘cry wolf’ message that ‘it’s important to not tell lies’ but is such a riot to behold thanks to Roberts’ jaunty narrative and Krebs’ priceless illustrations that you’ll be tearing your hair out with glee. A beaut addition to your Father’s Day collection that is sure to strike a chord with many a balding daddy out there.

 Title: A Dinosaur Ate Dad’s Hair
Author: Trent Roberts          
Illustrator: Chrissie Krebs
Publisher: Omnibus Books, $17.99
Publication Date: August 2019
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781742762678
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture Book

 Buy the Book: Boomerang Books


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