Fox and Geese

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr won the Caldecott Medal in 1988 – when my children were all still small enough to listen to picture books. It follows a father and his young daughter as they search through snowy, moonlit woods for the great horned owl. Eight years earlier the same award went to Ox-Cart Man by Don Hall and Barbara Cooney. It tells the story of 19th-century New Hampshire farmer and his family. Dads are rarer in picture books than mothers are, but if you go looking you’ll find them. Here are a few more: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me and Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle, My Dad by Anthony Brown, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, Eight Nine Ten by Molly Bang, Pete’s a Pizza and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems.