Waitin' for the Weekend: Saturday with Daddy

SATURDAY MORNINGS I'M ALWAYS THE FIRST TO WAKE UP!

Waking up Mom and Dad, dressing to the smell of coffee, having a leisurely breakfast, is just the beginning of the best day of the week--because Saturday is a special day, the day a  boy and his dad do all the things that they love to do together.

Singing their favorite songs, they drive down to Patel's Market for wieners and to the Handy Hardware Store, where they get a new barbeque grill and head home for the promised hot dog dinner.  The boy "helps" Dad put it together, holding the big wrench while Dad tightens the screws.

And when they're done, it's time to break in that barby, grilling the best hot dogs yet!

ON SATURDAY, I WEAR THE SAME SORT OF APRON AS DAD!

Mom adds her special side dishes to the feast, and then it's time for a snooze in the hammock with Dad!

Even pachyderms can be paternal, and every dad gets his due in Dan Andreason's Saturday with Daddy (Henry Holt, 2013). Andreason's jolly father-and-son story, featuring a family, who, despite artist Andreason's use of blue for the elephant characters, is definitely not in a blue mood, just right for young preschoolers to celebrate doing those Saturday duties with dad. Read this one along with Robin Pulver's insightful Saturday Is Dadurday, in which a mom and dad play tag team to keep the fun in Saturday even when work duties intervene (see review here.)

Bedtime Boo-time: Hush, Little Monster by Denis Markell

HUSH, LITTLE MONSTER, DON'T YOU HOWL.

DADDY'S GONNA GIVE YOU A. . . SCREECHING OWL.

IF THAT OWL WON'T SAY "WHOO WHOO"...

GRANNY GHOST WILL BRING YOU A BIG, BAD BOO!

Just like kids, little monsters sometimes have a hard time, er, giving up the ghost and drifting off to dreamland. But Daddy Monster knows just what to do--break out that old cumulative story-song with all the things that a li'l monster might want.

Using that old English lullaby just waiting for a parody, Denis Markell's brand-new Hush, Little Monster (Little Simon, 2012) shows off his considerable skill in rhyme and scansion as he works in all the usual suspects of the scary season to soothe his wakeful little monster into somnolence. Playing an, um, bit part, Dracula is sure to "stop by for a bite," and an ogre will drop in to growl right on pitch. Wolfman has a hairy cameo appearance, and that's not all: there are. . . ZOMBIES!

AND IF THAT ZOMBIE RUNS AWAY,
WE'LL ALL GO TO THE GRAVEYARD TO PLAY.

Pair this lovely little monster takeoff lullaby with Ed Vere's just-out Bedtime for Monsters (Henry Holt, 2012) for a double-barreled monster twosome of a nighty-night that'll send your furry--headed little monster off to sleepytime with a smile.