Driving Daddy

by Hope Vestergaard, Thierry Courtin (Illustrations)

In Driving Daddy , Baby rides on Daddy's shoulders while Mommy provides the play-by-play. Way up high, Baby can see everything and steer Daddy to where he wants to go-the park, the swings . . . Wait, Daddy's got a secret plan. Something good's around the corner. . . . Hear that music? Ice-cream man!

Genres: Childrens

24 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2003

About the author

Hope Vestergaard, a former early childhood teacher, is the author of several books for children. She lives with her husband and two sons, as well as cows, horses, pigs, and dogs, on a small farm outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad used to read this book to me every night, we read it so much that when I was four years old I had memorized the whole book, and I would read it in my head to myself whenever my dad wasn’t able to tuck me in, or when I didn’t have the book. We read it so much that even years after the last time I read it I could still recite it word for word, I still can, This is such a sweet story, and I have so many great memories of reading it, so you should pick it up for your child today, and remember don’t pull daddy’s hair.

[Anne Lutomia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting book about a child riding on his dad's shoulders as thought they were a car.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute story about a little boy who pretends to drive his dad as though his dad were a car on the way to the park. I used this a flannelboard story for both Spanish and bilingual story times in recognition of Father's Day. For the bilingual program, I used both The Daddy Mountain and Driving Daddy, which highlight pretending and dramatic play, so I used that as my literacy skill tip. (I did the same tip for Spanish story time, but I didn't use The Daddy Mountain story as an example since it's an English story for which I didn't have props/flannelboard art.)

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute premise... but I cringed when it talked about pulling Daddy's hair and tugging on his ears to "steer" him. Hair-pulling has been an on & off behavioral problem around here, and I suspect it's hard for my 2-year-old to differentiate between the playful way it's meant in the book and the hurtful way he often does it.