Review Detail

What worked:

I'm a huge fan of books show diversity in families. In MY DAD IS A CLOWN, readers see a young boy who is proud of the occupations of both of his dads. One of them, Pascual, is a doctor and the other one is a clown. The boy isn't sure what he wants to be he grows up. He knows that Pascual is a medical doctor but wants to see how his other dad gets ready to be a clown. He asks Pascual if they can spy on the other dad during his rehearsals. What he witnesses makes him realize how important the job of being a clown is.

This book is bilingual. My experience as a former bilingual teacher is that the extra language text in children's books can sometimes be distracting. Not to worry about that issue here! The Spanish in MY DAD IS A CLOWN flows effortlessly and bonus points for not being a direct translation. **Another huge pet peeve of mine! I also like how the Spanish text is highlighted in red. It's woven in such a way that it doesn't stand out and be distracting. I think my former students would have loved this book as much as I did! The theme of the importance of the job of being a doctor of the body and of the soul is shown through the eyes of a child. The illustrations also weren't overpowering.

Fun picture book that shows the love of a boy for both of his dads. A fun addition to any school and home library.