At Daddy's on Saturdays [Hardcover]

Linda Walvoord Girard (Author), Abby Levine (Editor), Judith Friedman (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Although her parents' divorce causes her to feel anger, concern, and sadness, Katie discovers that she can keep a loving relationship with her father even though he lives apart from her.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Katie's parents divorce, and jointly decide that she should live with her mother, because her father travels so much. The narration concerns the adjustment of each member of the family to the father's living elsewhere. The author explores many truths: that the divorce seems "like somebody was throwing someone else away," that being with her father on Saturdays is sometimes even boring, just like the old days, and that even after adjustment Katie still feels hurt "and probably always will." The parents act as a team, telling their child that, no matter what happens in other families, this Daddy will always show up when he says he will. Sensitive watercolors enhance the various moods of the book, which isif not originalreassuring. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3 Young children will find reassurance in this realistic but warm story of a divorce told from a young girl's point of view. The story begins on the day that Katie's father moves out and ends months later, after Katie, her mother, and father all have had a chance to adjust to the change in their lives. The sadness, guilt, and confusion typically felt by a child of divorce is honestly portrayed, but so is the unconditional love that both parents continue to feel for Katie. The soft, warm style of Friedman's realistic watercolors in muted colors supports the tone of the story. The best of the many other books on this topic are Caines' Daddy (Harper, 1977), Dragonwagon's Always (Macmillan, 1984), Lexau's Emily and the Klunky Baby and the Next-Door Dog (Dial, 1972), Helmering's I Have Two Families (Abingdon, 1981), and Schuchman's Two Places to Sleep (Carolrhoda, 1979). Girard's book will make an additional choice for children coping with their parents' divorce. Barbara S. McGinn, Oak Hill Elementary School, Severna Park, Md.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company; 1St Edition edition (October 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807504750
• ISBN-13: 978-0807504758
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,263,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Ideas, but..., May 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: At Daddy's on Saturdays (Paperback)

Every child will relate to something different. The children for whom I bought this book didn't relate. It was too boring and they lost interest in hearing it read. I loved all the ideas, but would recommend reading it at a library to your child first to see if they respond to the style of writing. I would highly recommend "The Unwedding" as an alternative. Written in a child's humor with a child's perspective, my children ask to read it again and again.