A Day with Daddy

writ­ten by Nik­ki Grimes
illus­trat­ed by Nicole Tadgell
Scholas­tic, May 2004

Buy the book

A Day with Daddy

More chil­dren than any­one can count suf­fer the pain of their par­ents’ divorce. For­tu­nate­ly, there are fathers who opt to stay in the cir­cle of their chil­dren’s lives.

No mat­ter how won­der­ful the new­ly-sin­gle moth­er may be, time spent with Dad­dy is still pre­cious to a child. Even if it’s only a day, father and child can make the most of it. That’s what A Day With Dad­dy is all about.

An excerpt from the book:

“Dad­dy comes for me
as soon as the sun
kiss­es my window …

We bop to the park.
When we get there,
we race
to the bas­ket­ball court …

We go for burg­ers and fries.
I munch mine slow­ly
so the after­noon
will last forever …”

from A Day With Dad­dy
© 2004 by Nik­ki Grimes

Reviews

Upbeat with­out being preachy or sen­ti­men­tal, … titles in the new Just for You! easy-read­ing series tell real­is­tic sto­ries of African Amer­i­can fam­i­ly life with excite­ment and grace. … In A Day with Dad­dy, a boy liv­ing with his mom talks about hav­ing fun with Dad on their week­ly out­ing. Grimes draws on per­son­al mem­o­ries of grow­ing up in a divorced fam­i­ly, and her sim­ple, poet­ic words describe what goes on until the boy returns home with “enough hap­py / to last me one week.” The sep­a­ra­tion is here as well as the joy, and Tadgell’s exu­ber­ant water­col­ors show the fam­i­ly bonds, the long­ing, and the love. [The book includes] excel­lent notes for adults and sug­ges­tions of things they can do with their chil­dren. (Hazel Rochman, Book­list)

Buy the book