Daddy's Little Helper: Mighty Dads by Joan Holub

MIGHTY DADS, STRONG AND TALL,
HELP THEIR CHILDREN, YOUNG AND SMALL.

In a double-header picture book that combines the preschool-pleasing construction vehicles with fatherhood, Joan Holub's just published Mighty Dads (Scholastic Press, 2014) celebrates fathers of every sort in chunky rhymes that point up that Dad has two responsibilities, his work in the world and his job teaching his kids what they need to learn.

Dads show their tads how it's done:

DUMP TRUCK STURDY

TEACHES DUMPY TO GET DIRTY.

THEY GO FILL...DRIVE...DUMP!

But Dad also remembers that his little one sometimes needs help.

CEMENT MIXER BUSY
GIVES A HUG IF MIXIE'S DIZZY!

Holub gives her little vehicles charming nicknames: the little bulldozer is Dozy, the little backhoe is Hoe-Hoe, and the small road grader is Grady, offering a chuckle with each description of the work to be done. All the usual suspects of the construction machine genre are there--graders, steam rollers, excavators, cranes, forklifts, boom trucks, all led by dump truck Big Daddy Son.

If the illustrations seem familiar, it's because artist James Dean provides the scratchy black line, daubs of watercolor, and especially those big black-line eyes found in his popular Pete The Cat books. A touch of Dean-style humor can be seen in the tiny trench, the petite pile of dirt, and the small slabs of cement that the little machines create alongside their dad's magnum efforts.

Boys and girls who love big machines will recognize their favorites and join in on Holub's jolly refrains--SPIN, SPIN, SPIN, SCOOP, SCOOP, SCOOP, and SMOOTH, SMOOTH, SMOOTH!--in this salute to doing it with Dad!

For more movers, shakers, and builders, here's a variety of tried-and-true hardhat winners!