Review Detail

Up High New

Kids Indie 33

Different View of a Walk in the Park

July 02, 2024

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

A young boy spends the day with his father, walking to the park to eat their sack lunch. Since the boy is so small, everyone on the street towers above him. At one point, he asks to go "up high", and his father lifts him onto his shoulders, holding on tight. The view is much better, and the boy feels like he is flying, and is glad to be able to have a better view of the world. After they eat their lunch, however, he sees that small things around him, like ladybugs, are also interesting. When the father asks if he would like a ride home as well, the boy declines; at least until he is too tired to walk, and his father carries him home, cuddled close.

Good Points

It's hard to be small, and to spend the day looking at people's legs, and it can be truly frightening in big crowds. The father seems to understand the boy's concerns, as well as his interests, and the two have a good relationship and clearly enjoy spending time together. I also enjoyed that when the father stopped to talk to someone, the boy got bored and started playing with his father's hair, motivating him to get moving!

The very plain, easy-to-read font contrasts nicely with the colorful line drawings, that are full of motion. There are lots of details, and I loved the one tattoo on the father that looks like the logo of the publisher. Since the two are outdoors, there are lots of leaves and green spaces portrayed.

This will be a popular choice for young boys to give to a beloved dad on Father's Day, along with titles like Jackson and Floca's With Dad, Lang and Yerrill's Why a Son Needs a Father, or Collins-Black and Gsell's Our Unbreakable Thread.