Published 10 years after Spinelli’s When Mama Comes Home Tonight (1998), which was illustrated by Jane Dyer, this companion picture book has the same quiet warmth and sweetness. In simple rhyming couplets, a young boy describes the small, joyful things that he and Papa do together at the end of the day. McPhail’s beautiful illustrations, rendered in his signature crosshatched sketches in watercolor, pencil, and ink, show the intimacy between adult and child, starting when they rush to hug at the gate: “I’ll lift you up. I’ll swing you round. / And then we’ll go inside.” They cook, wash up, fix things, sing, and cuddle up as they read at bedtime: “You’ll tap me on the shoulder / I’ll kiss you on the nose.” Pets and toys are part of the cozy scenes, too. The endpapers contrast the bustling city streets at the beginning with the sleepy neighborhood at the end, as dusk turns to dark. Children will want to snuggle up with a parent, just as the boy does, to share this gentle offering. Preschool. --Hazel Rochman
About the Author
Eileen Spinelli is no stranger to the Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers list. Since her debut in 1991 with
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch, an IRA/CBC Children's Choice book and Christopher Award winner, she has gone on to author numerous picture books, poetry collections, and chapter books, including the best-selling
When Mama Comes Home Tonight, and the critically acclaimed
Sophie's Masterpiece. Eileen lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
David McPhail has written and illustrated more than fifty books for children, including the
New York Times bestselling
When Sheep Sleep by Laura Numeroff (Abrams),
When Papa Comes Home Tonight by Eileen Spinelli (BFYR), and his own
Mole Music (Holt), which was a
New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year. He lives in Rye, New Hampshire.
