Daddy, Will You Miss Me?

McCormick's debut children's book introduces a boy saddened by the fact that his father is leaving on a four-week business trip to Africa. The man reassures the boy that he will each day ""whisper your name to the wind"" and each night ""send you kisses, blown flying and diving out over the black sky like swooping night birds to settle with slender feet into your dreams."" In turn, the boy vows he will collect a special item every day while his father is away, to give to him on his return. Narrated by the boy, the story nonetheless adopts an adult perspective (e.g., the boy describes his father: ""Moonlight falls over him like water dripping in through my window""), and the most childlike element, the boy's collection of various objects, gets short shrift. Eachus's (Goodbye Pappa) softly focused, lifelike portraits capture the sincerity and wistfulness of both adult and child, while smaller-scale depictions of the African plains and wildlife show the boy's notions of what his absent father might be doing and seeing. Ages 2-6. (May)