Looking After William

Wonderfully warm and wacky, this picture book is a role reversal story.  It is the little girl who claims to be the mummy and to be looking after her daddy, and he is (she says) the child.  Actually, dad seems to be the main carer for the little girl, though there is a mum in evidence too – and a wonderful cat on every page, who also features on the front endpapers.  ‘William likes to get up early,’ the little girl says, but the pictures tell a different story.  Dad and mum are sound asleep when their daughter jumps on the parental bed, and things get little better for poor, beleaguered daddy as the day goes on.  He needs lots of exercise, the little girl tells us, so it is daddy on the bicycle puffing up the hill pulling a cart with her in it.  And at the supermarket where ‘he needs so much attention’, daddy is doing all the work while the little girl falls asleep sitting in the cart.  Life is very busy for the little girl when she looks after her dad, but she also understands that he needs love, and we certainly see a very loving father who is willing to jump through all sorts of hoops for his darling daughter.  She knows he could be all sorts of things when he grows up, but most of all, he wants to be ‘my dad’.  The tender and realistic illustrations are huge fun, and I look forward to seeing what the talented Ms Coy does next.