What My Daddy Loves

Leading on from the refrain “My Daddy loves,” children describe various shared activities for a truly affectionate morning-to-night picture of caregiving. While simple text offers high-level summaries (bird-watching, gardening, making music, and playing, among other activities), painterly digital illustrations from Figueroa get into winning specifics via narrative depictions of Black-cued fathers and children with various abilities doting on one another. In an instance of “exploring with me,” a dad, locs flying behind, whizzes through a blurry store aisle while pushing a gleeful youth in the cart. In another, a father holds space for a child’s sadness: “My daddy loves sitting with me.” Of course, “what my daddy loves” most is not an activity, but rather a person—“me”—in this emphatic declaration of paternal devotion. Ages 4–8. (May)