When Your Dad Was Little....: Your Daddy Was Just Like You by Kelly Bennett

YOUR DADDY NEVER WANTED TO TAKE A BATH.

BUT ONCE IN THE TUB, HE NEVER WANTED OUT.

HE SPLASHED AND SANG

AND MADE HIMSELF SUDSY DISGUISES...

JUST LIKE YOU.

Kids love it when the old photo albums come out and Grandmom shows those old shiny snapshots of your mom or your dad in their diapers. In Kelly Bennett's just-in-time for Fathers Day offering, that's just what happens. There's Grandmom looking very young, but with almost the same hairdo, holding a baby boy who could be you--except it's Dad, right after he was born. And with your baby pictures side by side, he looks just like you.

There's Dad with his stuffed toy, Raggedy Dog. Then there's Bear, who always got his shots first to show that it's not so bad. Grandmom says you did the same thing. There's Dad, on his first day of school, saying "Do I have to?"--just like you.

Believe it or not, Dad wasn't always perfect, Grandmom says. When his team lost, he sometimes got mad and even cried. But he always went back to try again. And sometimes he even got time out. As Grandmom tells it,

MOST DAYS YOUR DAD WAS MY SWEET BOY,

BUT SOME DAYS HE TURNED INTO A WILD THING.

HE RAISED A RUCKUS.

ON THOSE DAYS YOUR DAD WAS SENT TO TIMEOUT...

JUST LIKE YOU.

Bennett's sweet and sensitive Your Daddy Was Just Like You shows the great times and the hard times of growing up, but all of them good days really, now that Dad's all grown up and raising his own boy. David Walker's illustrations of the ups and downs of childhood are insightful, showing Dad going to bed in the dark, with a look of trepidation of his face and on the copycat faces of Raggedy and Bear as they pull the covers up to their chins together or the three of them in a row in the corner for timeout. Boys will be boys, and dads won't forget, at least, not as long as there are grandparents and old photo albums around.