Customer Reviews

The Fathers Are Coming Home

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Father are Coming Home" is a cute book targeted toward young readers. Even if the examples sited in the book are not always true in nature, it is the premise that counts. It saddens me as I read this book to think of the children that read this book without a relationship with their father. Obviously, this book may not be appropriate for them. It is a heart-warming book to read to young children, particularly when it is being read by their father.

My kids and I enjoy the pictures in this book. I think they are really well done and my four-year-old likes to count the kids on each page as the fathers have different numbers of little ones welcoming them home.

The text for this book, however, is really bland. Other than the fact that each page starts with "The [animal] father comes home to..." there is no repetition of words or sounds, as kids usually enjoy. Some pages mention where the family lives, some do not. The bird father adds a completely random extra sentence. The whole thing reads like someone had a good idea for a book, but didn't bother to take time to polish it up. And every time we come to the page with the lion who "lives alone, so he comes home to himself," my kids get confused as they know that a father is someone with kids. They want to know where the kids are, and thinking of lion babies off somewhere without their father sort of defeats the purpose of the whole book, doesn't it?

As a longtime fan of Goodnight Moon and other books by Margaret Wise Brown, I had to have this new book. Brown, of course, is long gone and hasn't published anything new since the 1950's. I loved this book, largely because of the marvelously simple story, which has a cadence-like structure which really draws the reader in. The story describes how all of the fathers from various animals in the animal kingdom come home at night, culminating in the return of the human father coming home to his little boy. The story is actually quite moving. The only lack I felt was in the too-simple nature of the illustrations. I'm not asking for lush detail, which wouldn't fit the simple story, but just a little more color and variety. For example, the cover is a detail from the final panel, showing the father coming home to his little boy. The way it is blown up gives a kind of pixelated, serated look to the cover. Just a little more detail would have been nice.

This is a very sweet book of animal daddies coming home to their babies at the end of the day, finished with a father who is a sailor coming home to his little boy.

It's very sweet & simple, with bold colors. Unfortunately, every father comes home to the babies except father lion, who lives alone and comes home to himself. Considering lions have strong family ties and live in prides, I really don't understand this. Every time I read this, my 3 year old son asks why the lion is alone, and I have no real explanation. It's kind of funny that the daddy long legs and lady bug come back to their babies, when in real life they don't, but the lion who takes great care of his babies in the real world is alone.

My mom read this to my son, and she thought I should rip out the page about the lion, since she felt it ruined the entire book.

If that were changed, this would be a 4 star book. My 3 year old son does enjoy it, although it's not his favorite.

My son is really taken with this book. He loves the bold colors in the pictures and always sits quietly, fascinated, while my husband reads it to him. The story itself is simple and direct. It shows various "daddy" animals coming home to their baby animals--except for the lion. The lion has no family, which I don't completely understand. The most important thing, though, is that my son enjoys the book--and he does--so I give it four stars.

Just to be up front, I didn't like this book very much. I found it boring. Every page runs thusly, [insert animal] comes home to his [insert littler version of same animal] in the [insert animal's habitat]. All except the lion, who for some inexplicable reason lives alone (I suppose he sacrificed his family for his career). Complementing the extremely repetitive text are exceedingly simple illustrations. I don't have anything against repetitive text or simple illustrations, but in this book they don't work well. I get the feeling that this book was an attempt to cash in a little on Margaret Wise Brown's name.

I've held off writing this review for months and months because I didn't want to judge the book based on my adult tastes. But, now that we've had the book on the shelf for almost a year, I can safely gauge my children's interest in it. All three of my children fall within this book's target audience. The youngest is a toddler who likes being read to and looking at pictures, and the oldest started reading on her own while this book sat on the shelf. When we first received the book, I read it to them a couple of times. Over the last year, however, they haven't pulled it off the shelf once. Books get quite a work out in our house, but not this one.

Funny thing just happened as I was writing this review. My daughter wandered up to see what I was working on, and she noticed the book sitting in front of me. Without any prompting whatsoever from me, she said, "It isn't very good, is it?" I was going to give this book three stars, but she assured me that it didn't deserve more than two.

I did know that this was intended for extremely small children, and that is who I got this for (my niece). She is extremely young and was not interested in having a story or any morals. She just wanted to see the pictures and spend some quality time with Mom while she read to her. And for that, this was great!! She loved the pictures and the variety had her entertained at every page turn. I'm not sure if this was trying to send a message, especially the thing with the lion, but it did accomplish what I was hoping it would.

When you first open this book, you are greeted by a lone ship traveling on open water. The opening words set the stage, "It is nighttime and the fathers are coming home." With each passing page, you see vivid colors and read about which dads are making their way home.

The fish father swims home. The bug father flies home. The rabbit father hops home. My favorite is when you get to, "The daddy longlegs comes home to his little daddy longlegs." With birds, snails, lions, and pigs being highlighted, readers of all ages will be captivated. The most touching page is when you see the ship from page 1 docked, with a sailor walking toward the town. All fathers come home, and this one is no different.

The simple elegance of the text paired with the vivid illustrations make this a winning combination for readers of all ages.

This is a sweet, simple book celebrating the devotion of fathers to their offspring. Animal fathers and a human father are shown greeting their babies with love. This book would be especially soothing to a child who is attached to his or her daddy but misses him during the day or while he is away traveling or on deployment. You can't go wrong with Margaret Wise Brown!

This is a gorgeous, gorgeous book. And I do like the text, simple though it is. Both our kids (3 and 19 months) love it for separate reasons--the older for the story of the fathers coming home to their respective families, and the younger for just the pictures.

But I'm from an Army family and know plenty of mothers and fathers who are returning home not just from work for the day but from war. I really wish that it somehow included them. I know, I know, you can't please everyone, and I really think that Margaret Wise Brown chose wisely and edited well because the image of the dad/Sailor coming off of his ship is beautiful. But how about a dad/Soldier coming home off of a helicopter? I know lots of little boys who would dig that... And what about Airmen? Marines? The list goes on and on and on.

And there are probably a bunch of mothers who want a book like this to highlight their trip home, too.

Still, I am a big library person and we don't buy a lot of books. But we bought this one I loved it so much, despite my reservations.