With Father’s Day coming up on June 18, let’s reflect on the relationship we have with our men through books about the beautiful and, at times, complicated connections between fathers and their children.
Although Samuel Hawley’s past isn’t that pretty, he does his best to raise his daughter Loo on his own. When the girl turns 12, Hawley decides to settle down in his late wife’s hometown of Olympus, Mass.. Loo struggles to fit into her new life and school while also trying to learn about the mother she never knew. The girl slowly discovers secrets about her parents’ lives before she was born. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti is a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller that goes back and forth in time. It’s a story about the fierce love of a father, whom the reader ends up empathizing with despite his flaws and shortcomings.
I’ve never seen a father with such vivid imagination as the one in Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. After taking “ages and ages” to come back from a trip to the corner store to buy milk, the father explains to his children what delayed him so long: He had been abducted by a spaceship. This was followed by many other adventures and near-death encounters across time and space as he tried to come back home while saving the precious milk for his children. Despite being a chapter book for young people, the humour in this story can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects about the notion of race in America in the letters he wrote to his teenage son in Between the World and Me. His writing is brilliant, visceral and powerful. Drawing from his experiences growing up in Baltimore in the 1980s and ’90s, and from historical events, Coates asks poignant questions and tries to explain what it means to be a black person in America. As a father, his examples and thoughts on the matter of racism read like very important and timely advice to his son.
Your Father Sends his Love is a short story collection written by Stuart Evers that explores the exciting and complicated connections between parents and children. A single father gets arrested for fiercely defending his gay son; a new dad reflects about his own father as he cares for his new infant son while his wife is at work; a grandfather enjoys his grown granddaughter’s visit.
We often have a hard time picturing what our fathers were like when they were young. Keith Negley explores this question in a sweet way through his bright illustrations in the picture book My Dad Used to Be so Cool. A young son ponders about his dad’s past life, when he used to play in a rock band, ride motorcycles and get cool tattoos. Now, Dad drives a van and does chores. The boy wonders why Dad changed but finds out he is still pretty awesome.
The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood tells the story of a unique 11-year-old and the unlikely relationship he develops with 104-year-old Ona Vitkus. Quinn, the boy’s absent father, arrives to complete his dead son’s good deeds and embarks on a heartwarming journey with the old lady. Although the father is a secondary character in this book, he is the one who changes most in this beautiful intergenerational tale of redemption and self-compassion.
Visit your local library for more stories about fathers and children.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Ana Calabresi works at Port Moody Public Library.
