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| Daddy Dressed Me / Michael Gardner & Ava Gardner illus. by Nadia Fisher NY: Aladdin, c2023. |
This charming picture book is a lot of fun to read, especially if you followed Michael Gardner's original blog about his journey to sew for his daughter Ava.
The storyline is that Ava has been asked to recite a poem at school and is very nervous about it. Daddy agrees to make a very special dress for the occasion. But both of these projects are hard! So they help each other - Ava practices her words while Daddy is sewing, with his help with the hard bits. And she encourages Daddy as he goes through the steps of this challenging new dress.
In the end, Ava wears a beautiful dress and recites her poem perfectly. This is a sweet story of the gentle relationship between these two. And the illustrator has done a fabulous job of capturing the essential charm and all of the sewing details too! I really loved the way that the words Ava is learning are made into bright colourful parts of the text, alongside all the fabric designs and colours there. It really works well and was a satisfying read.
There is a short afterword by Michael Gardner about how and why he began sewing for Ava, and it was a great addition for the adults reading this. Definitely worth searching out this lovely picture book.
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