MY FATHER IS TALLER THAN A TREE

Rhyming couplets describe the many different ways fathers and sons enjoy each other and express their love, but unfortunately with this effort the master storyteller demonstrates that verse simply is not his métier: “Mi Papá likes to hear me sing. / He’s very good at listening. // Dad knows the times I like to hide / and when to call me back inside.” Taking her cue from the doggerel, Halperin depicts a variety of ethnicities in her father-son pairs and includes a blind dad, a hipster dad and an older dad as well. Her crayon spreads, done in her usual bright palette, display the formal precision readers have come to expect, presenting one large panel that spans the spread atop four smaller ones that run below and expand on each moment. Well-intentioned but nothing more. (Picture book. 3-5)