"Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me"

By Daniel Beaty                Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Image Source: Publishers Weekly

        The illustrations in "Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me" are a mix of watercolor and collage. The first couple of spreads are filled with vivid color and light. Once the father stops knocking on the door we are presented with a darker more muted version of the room with a darkened rainbow on the wall. The rainbow eventually has fallen off the wall to show both the passage of time and the child's hope dwindling while waiting for the "knock knock" on his door. We see less and less of a blue sky while the boy begins to lose hope of ever seeing his father. There is a collage of the father almost beginning to blend in with the architecture of the city with the accompanying text, "I'm forgetting who you are". Once the boy receives the letter from his father we see the collages begin to increase in colors and light to show that the boy has taken his father's advice and begun to hope and fight for his own future.

        The words in the book do feel appropriate for children, espescially for children who have lost a father. We don't know specifically why he left, but it is left vague in hopes that it can help a family that has lost a father to incarceration, death or divorce. The conversations are credible as the author, Daniel Beaty, describes in the back of the book that he lost his own father to incarceration as a child and when he became an adult he realized how common this was, which inspired him to write this picture book for the children who have lost a father somehow. The them for this book is heavy and that is shown through the illustrations as well, but the topic is an important one to have accessible.

        While this is not necessarily a picture book that you would want for just any day, it is an incredibly important topic to have for a child who would need it. Picture books that cover tough topics, like the loss of a parent, are important for children to see that they are not alone and that there is hope beyond the present circumstances. It was reviewed by School Library Journal. This would definitely be a picture book that I would want in my library collection. 

Beaty, Daniel. Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Little, Brown and Company, 2013. 38 pages. Tr. $18.00, ISBN 978-0-316-20917-5.