We're gearing up for Father's Day with three great books June 12, 2023 – Posted in: Books – Tags: book, child, Fluffy
This year Father's Day is celebrated on June 18. Father's Day was first celebrated in 1910 but became an official holiday six decades later. Eventually, the day spread across the US and the rest of the world as people took the opportunity to honor the father figures in their lives. It is observed by people giving gifts or spending time with their fathers honoring the men in their lives.
So, a few days before this year's Father's Day, we have 3 wonderful and unique books from Fourfouri publications for you to celebrate with them and every day the miracle of fatherhood.
"Daddy»
HÉLÈNE DELFORGE – QUENTIN GRÉBAN
The excellent duo Delforge-Greban, after our favorite books «Mum" and "In love» succeeds once again in creating a book of high aesthetics and well-spring emotions. Satisfying, in the typical large size that you are happy to hold in your hands, you open it, start flipping through it and in front of your eyes but also in your heart, images and words pass strong, intimate, true, full of honest feelings - as if you are traveling in your life through a special family album. Except that instead of this album being about your exclusively personal memories and experiences, it manages to include all possible versions of fatherhood.
What does it mean to be a dad? What expectations does a father have? How does the heart of a man who becomes a father love from one moment to the next? What skills should a dad have? Are dads scared? Do they have anxieties? How do they manage to make their arms a safe haven for their children and their shoulders the highest and most valuable observation post in the whole world?
In its wonderful pages parade busy dads, dreamers, stressed, serious, dorky dads, funny, anxious, hopeful, nervous, single parents, divorced, "full-time" dads, every-other-weekend dads, prepared dads or sudden dads, dads with sons, with daughters, with one or with many children… fathers of all professions, races and social classes. A multicultural collage that tries to fit all the concepts, meanings, nuances, roles, responsibilities, emotions, experience of what it means to be a dad.
Stories told like little confessions, interspersed with poetic texts, make up a lyrical tale that could have been titled "once upon a time dad..." and as you read it you can fill it in by adding your own story about your own dad.
A unique book that can be a valuable gift to those who are fathers, to those who may and want to be, but also to all the children who loved and love their fathers.
To get you into the spirit of the book, we're sharing two featured excerpts:
"For me, my job, my role,
as a father, he was…
...to protect you.
Let me hold your fingers to help you
in your first steps.
To teach you to tie your shoelaces,
to tidy your room, to avoid
toxic relationships
sorting through the trash, crossing the street...
Let me repeat "6 times 8, 48".
To encourage you, to argue with you, to applaud you,
to whisper "I love you"
to tease you, to put my voice on you sometimes,
feed you, wash you, walk you,
to guide you, to seek you,
to take care of you, to wipe your nose,
to comfort you
to set limits for you, to respect your every choice.
Let me explain how stars and babies are made.
To be present and involved, open ears.
I understood everything, but also nothing.
It's my job to let you fly
with your own wings."
"My dictionary didn't make a huge effort
to give me the definition of the word "father".
Father. Substantive. A man who has acquired
or adopt a child or children.
Obviously right. Poetically? Zero.
And yet, one cannot deny
the possibility of some truth
in this entry.
Lets continue.
Opposite: mother.
Opposite;
Rather it is not yin and yang,
the full and the empty,
the hot and the cold, the soft and the hard?
Rather like…
Is mom cooking, dad crafting?
Mom comforts, dad scolds?
Mom deals with family chores,
is dad playing?
We are not against
we are complementary
accomplices, partners,
companions in trouble.
Father. Substantive.
A man who has acquired
or adopt children.
A person who makes anything possible
to help them grow and be happy."
Both textually and illustrated, the book attempts and succeeds in embracing and highlighting all kinds of dads, emphasizing through diversity the need for inclusion and de-stereotyping – while not a 'classic' children's book, you can read it with your children and become an occasion to discuss with them your own path and how you experience parenthood.
"Once Upon a Child – The Arrow»
Antigoni Voutsina after the "Once upon a time a child – The spiral” where she dared to touch on patterns and behaviors of toxic parenting and “difficult” motherhood, she returns and with a similar philosophy continues her reflection and the sanitization of parenting by touching on toxic behaviors that may appear in terms of fatherhood.
The book is specifically about the father-son relationship but can be read by both parents in terms of the relationship with their children and both friends. If you had traumatic experiences in your childhood, both theOnce Upon a Child – The Arrow" as well as "Once upon a time a child – The spiral» will help you process them, understand and maybe even forgive your parents. Both the mother of the first book and the father of the second book start out of love. Can love hurt? Can love become toxic? Can love destroy the parental relationship and bond with the child? Yes, it can, if it is linked to expectations, if it is not gratuitous but offered only as a reward, a reward however that has to do with the satisfaction of the parents' desires-needs and not the child's.
Why give this book as a gift, especially on Father's Day? Because every man, whether he is already a father or will be, has first of all been a son. It takes a lot of self-awareness, a lot of practice and maybe even a lot of therapy to learn to recognize the pieces of our parents that we carry inside us and a lot of conscious effort to bring them out in the best possible way. It is healthy before we become parents to have forgiven our children for all the possible mistakes they may have made. This book exists to love and embrace our inner child but also serves as a reminder that in our own journey of parenthood, and for that matter fatherhood, we use love that does no harm but that respects and accepts the child as a separate entity with its own his dreams and characteristics.
The harmonized illustration by Filanthis Georgana completes the text in such a way that what was not given verbally, the reader can, if he so wishes, discover and unlock.
Because even the most difficult topics are approached more easily and more effectively through a fairy tale, this series comes to fill a big gap in the literature for parents and we are very glad that Furfouri publications dared to do it. We are eagerly awaiting the third book in the series.
"My Dad»
We close this tribute with a book that has been in our hearts for a few years now. The text is short, but condensed. Simple and to the point, it focuses on the truth of emotions. Through the honest and guileless childlike gaze of the heroine – and by extension the writer and illustrator Soosh – the unique relationship between the child (who just happens to be a girl) and his father unfolds so vividly that by flipping through the pages we can feel it .
The protagonists of the book, a little girl and her dad. So a little girl who introduces us to her dad. A dad of huge proportions - because that's how huge children see their dad, whatever size he really is. Already from the cover you feel a first attraction and you want to take it in your hands. Its title, 'My Dad', you understand it's talking about your dad, your dad's dad or your child's dad – dads all over the world!
As huge is the admiration that the children have for their dad, but also huge is the love they have for him.
And how can our heroine not love her dad so strongly since he also loves her in a unique way and manages to show it to her in practice and express it to her, with or without words. It makes her laugh. He takes care of her. He supports her. He comforts her. He hugs her. He spends time with her.
He shows it to her whether he is next to her or absent and far away. He proves it to her by teaching her about the world. By telling them the most beautiful and interesting stories.
To help her whenever she needs it but also to give her the strength to reach for the stars.
But the child also loves her dad and shows it to him equally. She is there for him when he needs her. She takes care of him and helps him in turn when he needs it.
It's a book about being together! We live and grow together for it. It's about the child's bond with their dad – but the dad's with his child. Of every child and every dad. When there is pure and unadulterated love. Then every dad is a superhero – just like the dad in this book!
The book is read with all the senses: we touch the engravings on the wall with which they measure time and their common growth. We hear the sounds of laughter, whispers, their voices. We smell the smells and taste the flavors of the food they cook. We see with the eyes but mainly with the eyes of the heart all these small and big, the important and the most insignificant things that their daily life includes.
A dad who isn't afraid to stand by his child, isn't afraid to lower himself and come to the height of the child, isn't afraid to shrink to make room for the child to fit with him. And especially a dad who isn't afraid to buck the stereotypes that want dads to be uninvolved or not cook or know how to sew or engage in jobs and activities that are considered "feminine" or "obligations" of mom.
