The Best Part of Daddy's Day

by Claire Alexander

Here's a sweet story that's perfect for Father's Day promotions about a builder and his son, and the best part of their day—coming home and spending time with each other!

Bertie wants to go with his dad to work at the contruction site—but he's too young, and he has to go to school. While he's there, he does eveything that he can to be like his dad! He paints cranes during art, climbs to the top of the jungle gym to see the tower that Daddy is building, and builds his own tower out of boxes. After Daddy picks him up, Bertie tells him all about his day and what the best parts were. Daddy listens carefully and then says how close it was to all that he did, too. But Daddy also says that the best part of his day is being home with Bertie, and Bertie agrees.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Construction, Dogs, Family

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2016

About the author

Claire was born in Bath, Wiltshire and moved to Kent when she was six. she has always loved drawing from an early age and remembers being asked by her school mates to draw rabbits for them! After school she studied Fine Art at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury where she achieved a BA degree in Painting. She moved to London in 1995 and stumbled through many different jobs until she studied children's illustration at Putney School of Art. Here Claire produced her first dummy book for Small Florence, which was then published and started her dream career as an author illustrator.

In 2007 Claire wrote her own course on writing and illustrating picture books which she has been teaching ever since, and now at the House of Illustration. She regularly visits schools and enjoys drawing for children.

Claire's new title 'The Best Bit of Daddy's Day' will be published in June 2016.

'Monkey and the Little One' was shortlisted for the 2015 Junior Design Awards and listed as one of the top ten best new picture books during Independent Book Sellers Week 2015.

'Back to Front and Upside Down' won the 2013 Schneider Family Book Award from the American Libraries Associataion. The award honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

'Lucy and the Bully' won the 2009 Paterson Prize for Young People and 'Small Florence' was short listed for the 2010 Mad About Books Stockport Schools' Book Award.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet, well-illustrated book about the day experienced by a father and son. Bertie's dad builds things and Bertie couldn't be more proud, even climbing the highest jungle gym at school to try and see if he can see his dad on the crane at work.

Entertaining, fun book that I can see myself reading to Shortcake many more times. And hopefully this next time, it won't get as dusty while I'm reading it (though the dust didn't seem to affect her as much. Maybe it's just a Daddy thing)

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

With our first little one on the way, my husband picked this one out at the library on a whim :-) And it was such a sweet little story! Bertie wants to be a builder just like Daddy and is super excited when in school they get to learn about builders! But the rest of his day does not go so well - he spills his lunch, a careless classmates messes up his artwork, etc. But once back at home, he learns that Daddy too had bad parts to his day - but the best part of the day is spending time together each night! Aww!

The all-dog illustrations were fun, filled with bright colors and plenty of detail to keep children engaged.

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very clever way of showing little ones that being a grown up isn't all that different. The little dog goes to school and has a pretty bad day, and it isn't until he tells daddy all about it before bedtime that he realises daddy actually had a bad day too. Getting home from work and getting to snuggle with my little one is the best part of my day, so I definitely related to this book, and based off of how much fun her daddy had reading it to her I think he agrees too!

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who do you suppose checked this out? Yup, L! Her love for dog/puppy books continues unabated. This was one of those books that left me wondering why the characters were dogs, though, as there was no reference to their animal-ness and the Daddy dog works construction and the child dog goes to school. This wasn't a huge hit with L, as she only wanted to read it once before returning it to the library.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cute book about how a boy looks up to his father who is a construction worker. The boy goes to school where some good and some bad things happen. When he talks to his dad at night, he assumes his dad's day was perfect, but the dad tells him that actually both good and bad things happened to him at work, too. But the best part of his day is spending time with his son.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An endearing story for the Littlies, where young Bertie is having a difficult day at school but manages to spy crane-driver Daddy‘s tower in the distance. In the evening they catch up on each other’s day and find that perhaps it wasn’t so very different for them both, after all.

[Brianna Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bede sat for the whole thing while Dad read it. The illustrations were cute and the story was simple and sweet.

[Anastasija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with a very nice message and lovely illustrations. I think this is my best find this year :)

[Moodles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it because my daddy is right here right now and reading the story to me.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven read this to Mister (aww). Sweet book. Good to let littles know that bad things (minor irritations) can happen to grown up too, but in the end it's all good and that our children are the best part of our day (double awww).

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Checked out from Fort Worth Wedgwood Library; read by Dad (rated 4.5)

[Bp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to tell you about a children's book called The Best Part of Daddy's Day by Claire Alexander today.

Little Bertie wishes he could go to work with his Daddy, but he has to go to school instead. Bertie wants to be just like his Dad, and when he is on the playground, he thinks he sees his Dad up in the crane. After school Bertie shares about his day. Not all of it was good. Daddy tells him about his day, including the things that went wrong for him. They both agree their favorite part of the day is when they are together.

This would be a sweet book for your child to read with his/her Daddy and would be good for Father's Day. I know youngsters will enjoy these pictures of the dogs and machinery at Daddy's workplace in this sweet book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Little Bee Books, in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!

Have a day of blessings!

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars LOVED THIS BOOK! I love everything about it! I might nominate it for a Beehive Book award! We need more awesome dads like this! Miss Alice is gushing over this...but there is serious love Great pictures, great message great story!

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be a good one for next year's SRC theme.

[Nikki Glassley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty sweet, without being saccharine. A great book for both parent and child.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Courtney Baird]

The 2 main characters of this book are a father and son dog. The son wants so badly to go with his dad to his construction site and work with him but he is to young and has to go to school. At school he does everything he can to be like his dad. He draws pictures of cranes, builds a huge tower in his classroom, and climbs to the top of the jungle gym at school to see the tower that Daddy is building. when his dad picks him up from school Bertie tells his dad all about his day and what happened. His dad tells him that at work similar things happened to him at work as well! Bertie then asks his dad if the best part of his day was when he finished the tower he was building, but his dad says no, that instead the best part was spending time with Bertie. This is such a cute book because it goes to show kids that even though you accomplish big things and can get your work done, spending quality time with your family is the best part of your day.