We Help Daddy

by Mini Stein, Eloise Wilkin (Illustrator)

Benjy and Sue have a busy day helping Daddy. Mommy and Daddy are so pleased with their two helpers. Benjy and Sue are very pleased, too, because helping Daddy is fun.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Family

24 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely story that shows two siblings helping daddy around the house. A daddy's work is never done, just like mummy's work. It's all worth it though. Lovely illustrations and simple text.

Read on open library.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the easiest-written of the Golden Books, but it’s honestly delightful. The two children in the story help their daddy do a truly extraordinary amount of work for a single day and Sue feels special and needed all day long. A truly heart-warming story with great vintage illustrations.

Most memorable as a child? The dog rolling in the grass after getting a bath!

[Asho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember my parents reading this book to me when I was growing up. It's a simple story about all of the things two children do around the house to help their Daddy with his chores. The illustrations are great, very life-like. At this point, this book has a very retro feel (it was already very dated when I used to read it in the early '80s). All of the chores are things a Dad (or Mom) would still do around the house today, but the illustrations are straight out of the Mad Men era. Also, Daddy is smoking a pipe in every picture, and in one of them his little daughter is even holding his pipe. You'd never see that in a chidren's book nowadays! Oh, and Daddy does a RIDICULOUS amount of work in one day. By the time I got to the "Next we decided to make a bird feeder," page, I was literally laughing out loud, because who the heck has time to fix a door, weed and hedge AND water the garden, wash the dog, paint the kitchen fence, hang a picture, and THEN build a bird feeder (and he's not even done at that point!) all in one day?
My mother recently informed me that when my dad would read this book to me as a kid he would always ask my mom, "Where's the part where they help Daddy lie down on the couch and drink a martini?" 25+ years later, I agree!

[Elizabeth]

Eloise Wilkin... one of my favorite illustrators.

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite Little Golden Books when I was a kid. The illustrations are fantastic.

Everything in this book is so retro. Everything was already so retro by the 1970s when I read this book repeatedly.

(The button-down-sweater-over-dress look the little girl is rockin' on the cover is a look I love. Now I have to wonder if I love that look because of this book.)

[Cara Byrne]

Daddy, complete with a pipe and leisure pants, asks help from Benjy and Sue in the garden, fixing the door and hanging frames. This is the quintessential Golden Book family, as the mother is kept in the kitchen and the father improves the exterior of the home. They are well-dressed, in a middle class home and, of course, white.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this little book, have read it over and over to our children, grandchildren and all the children who have lived in our home.

[Little Seesaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course I love the illustrations. The story is well written. The one thing I just don't love is that the dad has the pipe in his mouth 10 times. That is a lot of explaining to do. I remember reading it to my small children and it just worried them the whole book that the dad was going to die. I will still keep it in my collection.

[Christie-anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two kids help their dad with home maintenance tasks. It’s not offensive, and it’s a good message to include even small children and to praise them for positive things like helping. But as a story… meh.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Golden Books – We Help Daddy
Nice to return to these first reads of mine.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t get to read this one when I was little, but it is similar to the book ‘we help Mommy’, though personally I don’t think this one is quite as good.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures tell the story so well a n0n-reader can follow the story.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

If your kids can relate to the kids in this book or its companion, We Help Mommy, then you're doing something right. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Carry on!

[Gingaeru · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had the willpower and time-slowing abilities of Daddy; just think of what you might accomplish with such power. What is he smoking in that ever-present pipe of his?

How does a nail come to be sticking out of the middle of a door, only six inches off the ground? My theory: Benjy planted it there because he has become obsessed with doing odd jobs around the house and doesn't want it to end; a negative side-effect of having such an obscenely proactive and productive father. He had access to the old nails from the first job of the day, so he slipped one in his pocket when Daddy wasn't looking. Things could get out of hand if Benjy's hero complex is left unchecked. Just saying.
...

[Margaret Chind]

Looks appropriate for Father's day...

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this little book were influential in developing understanding of roles in my early childhood.