Tell Me One Thing, Dad

by Tom Pow, Ian Andrew (Illustrator)

Celebrate the love all parents have for their babies — from dinosaurs to Grimalkens to real-life dads.

"Dad, tell me, if you can,
one thing you know
about a dinosaur."
"Was that a dadosaur
you said?" Dad asks.

Molly and Dad both know one thing- one very important thing — about polar bears that live on the Arctic ice, crocodiles with whip-crack tails, even dinosaurs whose jaws could swallow a school. Could the same thing be true of a Grimalken that dances on the green edge of town, or a certain dad whose neck is ticklish? Young children will be eager to join in Molly and Dad’s lyrical, lighthearted bedtime game. Guess what that one thing is!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Family Life

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 27, 2004

About the author

Tom Pow is a Scottish poet, travel writer and teacher. He was born in Edinburgh in 1950. Several of his collections have won awards and three of his poetry collections have been short-listed for Scottish Book of the Year. Most recently, Dear Alice – Narratives of Madness (Salt Publishing) won the poetry category in the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust’s Scottish Book Awards in 2009. He has also written young adult novels, picture books, radio plays and a travel book about Peru. In the Becoming, Selected and New Poems was published by Polygon in June 2009.

He has held various writing posts, including that of Scottish/Canadian Writing Fellow, based at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and Virtual Writer in Residence (Scotland’s first) for the Scottish Library Association’s Scottish Writers Project. He was the first ever Writer in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival from 2001 to 2003.


From 2000 to 2009, he worked for the University of Glasgow in Dumfries, latterly as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Storytelling.

He is currently Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University Dumfries and a part-time lecturer on Lancaster University’s distance learning Masters in Creative Writing.

Reviews

[Jessica✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderfully sweet story. I had the pleasure of reading this to my baby niece and she adored it! As did I! Just to cute for words :)

[Misbah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A father answers his daughter's silly questions about animals as he tries to get her to go to bed. At the end of every answer, he reminds her that all parents love their children, including him.

A sweet bedtime story.

[Beth (FebruaryFilly) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daddy-daughter; bedtime rituals

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daddy-daughter bedtime ritual of talking about animals and reminding each other that the animals love their babies and that the most important thing about the dad is that he loves her, too!

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet, but not particularly poetic, given that it was written by a poet; I longed for more rhyme, and didn't always know where the rhythm would next hit.

[Reema · Rating 5 out of 5]

The child in the story asks the dad tell her something about the animal like polar bear, crocodile,dinosaur, grimalken and the father tells the child facts about the animal at the end of each discription the father would add that the animal love its babies. then when its the fathers turn he asks the child one thing that the child knows about her dad and she tells him stuff about him how he plays with her and throws her to the sky. Then the dad asks whats the most important thing you know about me? and the dad says you are right you know that i love my baby.

Extension- Draw a story of someone that they love or someone that loves them and write about them if they can they can bring in pictures and talk about the person that loves them or that they love..

[Breanna Mcalister · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fiction children's book about a single dad that is playing a bed time game with his daughter. This book is good to use with young children. The story has a lot of imagination and will keep the child's attention.

[Erma Talamante · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little girl and her daddy hold a bedtime conversation about animals. And daddies. One thing that animals and daddies have in common is - the love their babies! A sweet daddy-daughter read with colorful, engaging pictures. The repetition, though, can be a bit... repetitious. Otherwise, great read.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bedtime story for dads. How many picture books actually use a grimalken as a character?! Clever and enjoyable.

[Rachel Flan · Rating 4 out of 5]

an adorable bed-time story that a Dad could read to their children :)

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tooth-achingly sweet and cute with very pretty art. The grimalken are what interested me in it, since I wanted to know what they were.