The Fathers Are Coming Home

The Fathers Are Coming Home. Margaret Wise Brown. Illustrated by Stephen Savage. 2010. Simon & Schuster. 32 pages.

It is nighttime and the fathers are coming home.
The fish father swims home to his little fish that live in the gurgling brook.
The bug father flies home to his little bugs that live under the log.

I didn't love The Fathers Are Coming Home. Not at much as I'd hoped anyway.

The book is a traditional, old fashioned. Readers see different fathers coming home; these "fathers" are drawn from nature--ladybugs, spiders, fish, pigs, dogs, birds, etc. The book closes with a sailor coming home to his son.

There is one example that didn't quite fit with the others. And that is the case of a lion.

The lion father lives alone, so he comes home to himself.

This example doesn't match the premise, and it seems out of sorts with the rest.

I did enjoy the illustrations by Stephen Savage. They have a very traditional, very nostalgic look that complements the text well.


© Becky Laney of Young Readers