A Daddy Day: Nelly Gnu and Daddy, Too! by Anna Dewdney

A GREAT BIG BOX, SOME TAPE AND STRING--

DADDY CAN MAKE ANYTHING!

Daddy Gnu is doing the day with his daughter, and does this dad know his Nelly!

As the story opens, there are two big and invitingly empty cardboard boxes in the living room, and Daddy Gnu knows just what to do with them to please his little girl.

Nelly Gnu is a crafty kid, and Daddy Gnu has just the project for the day--a playhouse just the right size for Nelly and her little Gnubie doll.

Nelly lays down the tape line and Daddy has her step aside while he wields the carpenter's saw.  Nelly watches until it is her turn to spread some glue. Finally the construction phase is finished, and Nelly inspects the interior.  It's perfect, but...

IT NEEDS SOME FLOWERS, JUST A FEW.

IT'S TIME TO SHOP WITH DADDY GNU.

It's off to the big box home improvement store, where Nelly rides high on Daddy's shoulders as they head toward the paints section.  There are so many colors that Nelly Gnu doesn't know what to do.  But then, she spots the perfect blue.

Daddy carries the bucket of paint and heads for the section with all the paint brushes. They are almost done, but then there's a near Gnu disaster! Nelly realizes that she's dropped her doll somewhere, and when she runs back toward the paint section to find it, she realizes that she can't see Daddy Gnu anywhere! There's a moment of panic!

Nelly Gnu rarely gets in a stew, but this is serious!

But Daddy Gnu is looking for her, too, and soon she feels his big, strong arms corral her in a big hug.

It's a great big whew! for Nelly Gnu, in Anna Dewdney's brand-new Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too (Viking Books, 2014), as the two Gnus head homeward, where Nelly can paint her playhouse with blue flowers and Daddy Gnu can paint the whole exterior in perfect brickwork. The paint dries while Daddy whips up dinner just in time for Mama Gnu to arrive with Baby Gnu to admire their work. The paint is dry by bedtime, and on this special night Daddy Gnu tucks Nelly and her doll into a special bed inside her new playhouse.

Nelly Gnu, introduced earlier in two of Dewdney's best-selling Llama Llama books, gets her first solo story in this latest entry. Dewdney's charming couplets tell the story with just the right rhyming words, and her strong saturated colors and soft, rounded characters make even hoofed animals endearing, with each story showing her preschoolers in a transitional moment. This new Gnu story is a great choice for Fathers Day reading.

Dewdney's two stories featuring Llama Llama's best friend Nelly are Llama Llama Time to Share and Llama Llama and the Bully Goat.