kirkusreviews.com
When a young girl’s father is too sad to get out of bed, she
paints him a picture and the two go on an imaginary adventure together.
It’s Saturday morning, and Paula is waiting for her father
to make hot chocolate and coffee, but she doesn’t hear him moving around the
house. When she discovers he’s still in bed, she asks if he’s still sad about
Mommy and then says, “I miss her too.” Paula decides that, to get cheered
up, her father needs to go sailing, and so she paints a picture of a
sailboat and coaxes him into an imaginary adventure. Author/illustrator Dufft’s
watercolor illustrations skillfully combine an assured, realistic watercolor
style to portray Paula and her father, with a rudimentary childlike stroke to
visually highlight the imaginative adventure. Light and shadow are used to
great effect to convey mood—the father’s bedroom is portrayed as a dim room of
grayed color that brightens by story’s end. While the final page turn is just
so-so (Paula’s self-confidence has been well-established throughout, so its
resurrection comes as no surprise), ending on an uplifted note both visually
and textually reassures readers that both Paula and her father will come
through this trying time just fine. Both Paula and her father present white.
A gentle, touching story of loss and resilience and of the
beneficial role imagination plays, with visually intelligent and well-executed
illustrations. (Picture book. 3-7)
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