Dear Dad: Growing Up with a Parent in Prison -- and How We Stayed Connected

Dear Dad is a coming-of-age graphic novel that tells Jay Jay Patton’s life growing up with her dad in and out of prison. This book follows as Jay Jay tells the story of her growing up with her dad in prison, to him being released and her family moving to Florida to be together. From there we get to see Jay Jay learn coding from her dad and then work together to build Photo Patch, an application that connects children to their incarcerated parents.

What I Liked: I’ve read several graphic memoirs and I love how they manage to tell the story through images. I appreciated the structure of this book and how we go back in time briefly to see what life was like before Jay Jay's dad was released. This book does a great job of jumping through various time frames as a lot is covered in a short amount of time.

I liked that we got to see Jay Jay have mixed feelings regarding losing her hometown and gaining a family and how both of those feelings could co-exist with her family acknowledging that difficulty. I love that we get to see Jay Jay struggle with the rules her parents have for her and how some of those rules have shifted now that her dad is back in the picture. I like that her mom helps to navigate those conversations so that there is a middle ground between them when it gets tense.

Final Verdict: Dear Dad is a powerful memoir that shows people what it is like growing up with a parent in prison and teaches people about the origins of the Photo Patch application. This is a great book for children ages 8 and up who are interested in nonfiction and memoirs but may struggle with reading prose.