Un parent safe harbor. But also a travel companion. Someone who helps grow and, at the same time, grows too. The new fathers are not afraid of tenderness, complicity. They play with young children and accompany the big ones to discover the world. A change of role, and of relationship between generations, that children’s books know how to tell well, with stories for all ages and all situations. And then, on the occasion of Father’s Day, buying a book for your children can be a way to be together, share an adventure, some laugh, a moment of cuddle. To read together or separated, and then confront each other, listening to each other. Or to live an adventure together. Like a weekend in a camper, or buy discs at a second -hand market. Or surprise the mother.
Here then are our five proposals for children and teenagers, from the youngest to the older ones, to share for the Father’s Day. The authors are psychologists, pedagogists, disseminates. All experts from the wonderful world of childhood.
Suitable for the little ones, a book of nursery rhymes “to grow together” enriched by the delicate illustrations by Maria Cristina Lo Cascio. There are nursery rhymes for pampering, for leisure and special occasions, family life, but also to remember the rules (the no that are good, and the slaps that hurt). There are visits to grandparents, surprises to mom, bicycle walks. Alberto Pellai, psychotherapist, an expert in evolutionary age and bestsellers author, wrote the first edition of this book when the first child was small and the second was coming (he and his wife then had two more). Like all dads, he tells in the afterword, he wondered about what to do, and his parent qualities. But, he writes, it was the children who made him understand that they become a parent day by day, and when they are born, we are born too.
What if you finish the words?, By Felicita Sala (Rizzoli)
“What if you end up the words one day? Don’t you even have one for me? ” He asks the little girl from the father, more busy chatting on the cell phone and sending messages than to deal with her. The father hit on the live, reassures her: it will not happen, but even if it happens, it will be ready to go down to the depths of the earth to recover the words from the Elves’ factory, to sail the seas and challenge the pirates, to cross a forest at night, to climb a rocket in order to return. Because wherever he goes, nothing will prevent him from returning home to his little girl. A fantastic, funny, affectionate adventure narrated by Felicita Sala that won the Andersen 2020 award for best illustrator.
I will be your safe harbor, by Stefano Rossi (Feltrinelli)
The journey of the small sailing ship between the islands of emotions is about to begin. A journey “with beautiful places to discover, and delicate skies from which to be embraced”. And when he is tired and he wants to rest, he will always find mom and dad, his safe harbor. Stefano Rossi, school psycho -pedagogist, lecturer and an expert in emotional education, accompanies the small sailing ship in the great sea of the four emotions (joy, sadness, fear, anger) to which he added the feeling of justice. A growth path to face together, hand in hand, adults and children. “A little girl or a boy who knows how to” think of his emotions “will become an emotionally intelligent adult and above all he will feel that he can count on you. You will always be for him. He will always be there for you. Today and every tomorrow you will always be his safe harbor », writes the author in the preface of this delicate and intimate book. With the beautiful illustrations of Paolo D’Altan.
You are too strong dad!, By Federico Taddia, Mondadori
There is something for all dads: the lazy ones, adventurous, latecomers, distracted, sportsmen, beached on the sofa, aspiring Masterchefs. There is always a fun activity to do with them, and Federico Taddia, writer, TV presenter and scientific popularizer, offers 39+1. A way to get to know each other, share, detach yourself (both) from the devices. Some examples? They range from building an hourglass to buying second -hand market discs, iron a shirt, spend a weekend in a camper, take a trip using only the geographical map, prepare a mask for the skin, bathe in a river, write a rap. They are activities divided by duration, difficulty, type of father to be involved. There will certainly be at least one for you!
Outside the refuge, by Guido Affini and Roberto Affini (the steam boat)
Martino is 12 years old and when his dad gives him a paper diary remains banned, he doesn’t know what to do with it. But it is one of the many oddities of his father, who for work “allows those who do the good to do even more and better” and who left a few years earlier, leaving the family, to follow “Don Fabio on a mission in the world”. But this is only the beginning of the story that Martino tells firsthand. The day after the gift of the diary, Martino starts with his dad for a refuge in the mountains, where he will spend four days with some friends to discuss what “can be done in our city for us guys”. When he arrives at the refuge, he will find the “Band of the 2nd B”, Aunt Fede and many friends. That weekend will be an opportunity to get to know himself better and understand what it means to grow and become men. A novel written in four hands by Guido Affini, who in 1992 opened the Library Il Delfino in Pavia and constituted the coordination of children’s bookstores, and his son Roberto, graduated in Pavia but a citizen of the world.