Dad and Me in the Morning

by Patricia Lakin, Robert Steele (Illustrator)

Early one morning, a young boy wakes to the light of his alarm clock. He puts on his hearing aids and clothes, then goes to wake his father. Together they brave the cold as they walk down the dirt road that leads to the beach. Lakin’s understated story reminds readers that sometimes the best way to communicate doesn’t involve words, while Steele’s watercolor illustrations show that beauty is never far away.

Genres: Picture Books, Disability, Childrens, Family, Realistic Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[James Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the art and the story itself invoked memories of one on one time with my own father.

[Debra Schoenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous book!

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a touching story, so beautifully told and gorgeously illustrated! Mostly we learn about the loving bond between a boy and his father, as they watch a sunrise.

What adds even more beauty to this story? The boy wears hearing aids. He has learned how to read lips. Crudely put, the boy has a hearing disability.

AS A READER WITH HEALTH PRIVILEGE, HOW TO I REACT TO BOOKS LIKE THESE?

Depends entirely on the book.

With some, I'm grateful for the inclusiveness. But that's all.

I feel like, "We people with health privilege need reminders that everybody on Earth doesn't have the same kind of life. Let's score a point for our humanity." That means scoring a point for social justice, too.

But this is the rare book that achieves much more. To me, "Dad and Me in the Morning" is like the "Emma Every Day" series by C.L. Reid, books that I just love. The humanity shines through, with a strong individuality for the central characters.

No wonder I'm rating this book with FIVE STARS. And I'm shelving it under religion and spirituality as well as fiction. Seems to me, any book that opens my heart to my brothers and sisters... helps me to live with a bigger, stronger truth.

Isn't that the direction of all spirituality and religion? Sure is, at least for me.

[Stina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #40 for 2018
Old Firehouse Summer Reading Bingo Square: A Book That Is More Than 10 Years Old
My Personal Reading Challenge: A book you heard about online
Goodreads Summer Challenge: Father Knows Best - Read a book that features a father
While I Was Reading: Read a book that takes place in one day
Read the Year: June - Pick up a book that delves into the experience of fatherhood

Okay, "delves into the experience" might be a stretch, but I liked that this simple story of a father-and-son sunrise outing showed the importance of these gentle, quiet moments of fatherhood. The boy is deaf, and the story also explored nonverbal communication.

This is a short, quick read with beautiful illustrations. It's well worth checking out, especially if you're looking for a story about father-son bonding or representation of a disabled child in a supportive home.

[Cassidy McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is about a deaf boy and his father. It shows different ways in which they communicate. The pair wakes up early in the morning, quiet to not wake anyone else, to go see the sunrise. They sit together near the water and watch as the sun changes the colors of the sky.

The themes are family and disability.

★★★★★

I really love that this book shows how deafness doesn’t make you an outcast. There is still a normal parent-child bond. It can also be used for younger or older children.

I recommend this book because it opens kids up to new types of people and also has beautiful illustrations.

[Alyccia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story, it was very intimate and touching. I loved that it showed the close relationship between a father and son. Though the main character was deaf it did not take away from the relationship and the communication between the two. The storyline was a little deep but I think children would still be able to follow along easily. I thought the author did a very good job of describing how the two can communicate from signing to lip reading and touch. The illustrations were also very vivid and intense and used the colors well into incorporating them into the story. This is a cute story that I would definitely recommend.

[Kaitlyn Kluesner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a father and son who sneak away in the night to watch the sunrise together. They both enjoy sitting outside and absorbing all the nature around them while they wait. The son has a hearing impairment so they have special signs and signals that they give one another. This was a very cute little story with great pictures.

[Aolund · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this sweet and tender book about a dad and child sharing the wonder of a sunrise together. The child is hard of hearing and uses hearing aids, and he and his dad use sign language, lip reading, and their own special forms of communication (squeezing hands), to speak with one another. Dad and kid are both White.

Themes: Morning, Dad/Family, Deafness, Ocean
Age range: PreK-Kindergarten

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very sweet and a little mysterious. I love the illustrations. I like that the author jumped right into the conversation of the two characters without explanation, but I’m not sure that all readers would understand the communication uniqueness. The vocabulary was wonderful.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this story as part of the Read Harder Challenge 2021 (task 21).
This was a beautiful and touching story told by a deaf boy describing a special moment of a day with his dad. Very heartwarming and sweet.

[Selena Santillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a beautiful story of deaf child and a hearing father and them going to watch the sunrise. The images were beautiful and when the sun came up the colors danced off the page. It was a special moment between a father and son.

[Pandamunky · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Beautiful illustrations, touching father son relationship.

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about communication!

[Rachel]

Read for book riot task #21 : read a book that centers a disabled character but not their disability.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young boy wakes up early to see the sunset with his dad.

[Jennifer Worrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the quietness of this story and the beauty in simple things.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ages 5 and up. The sweet story of a father and son venturing out before sunrise to the beach. The son explains throughout the different ways he and his deaf dad communicate. Beautiful illustrations.

[desiree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a boy and his father. They go to the beach to watch the sunrise for the first time. It is a simple story about this special shared experience that I think any family can relate to. It has nice details, like the smell of the rocks, the hermit crabs, the temperature of the air and the water. The thing that pushes it from three stars to four is the way the boy's deafness is handled. The author added details so that it is clear that the boy is deaf (though not clear if his father is.) The deepest explanation given is the line, "Dad and I have lots of ways of talking to each other, like signing or lipreadng or just squeezing each other's hands. That's our secret signal."
The illustrations are beautiful watercolors and the background for the text. The pictures are soft, muted, and inviting until the sun comes up. Then, they are bold and orange--exactly as a sunrise should look.
In all, it is a beautiful book and worth a read but not something I will come back to again and again.

[Meltha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book works very, very well on lots of levels. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous watercolors that really add to the quality of the story. The story itself is remarkably touching, a boy and his father getting up early to watch the sunrise, and while it's not overly sentimental, it's great to see a father and son story where the characters are obviously close. Added to this, the son is Deaf, and rather than having this ignored in the story or become the focus of it, it is simply part of it, including details like the light-based alarm clock and lipreading and signing when they are appropriate. This is book that treats a Deaf character as a person without hiding that he is, in fact Deaf. Excellent.

[Lindsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a deaf boy who wakes up early in the morning to go see the sunset for the first time over the ocean. They go to the beach and see some different animals. This boy explains how he and his dad communicate and talk with each other through signing, squeezing each others’ hands, or reading each others’ lips. This book had beautiful pictures depicting the beach and the sunset, with a lot of the bright colors that are associated with sunsets. I think I would use this book to explain to children how some people can’t hear well so they have to use their other senses a lot more and they can communicate even though they can’t hear or speak very well. Then I would teach them some basic sign language to express what they’re thinking or feeling.

[Tayler Bingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lakin, Patricia. Dad and Me in the Morning. Open Road Media, 2014. This is a story about a boy and how he has interacted with his father. he details a very special moment that he likes to share with his dad. Unfortunately, the book was not very well written. The moral was great, but the but there was a lot of text and the illustrations did little to interact effectively with the overall message of the story. However, this book could be used very well on a father's Day weekend to teach children that we all have very special moments with our dads, and it is important that we figure those out and cherish them while we have them.

[Muhuawu wu]

Early in the morning a young boy sneaks into his father's room and awakens him so that they go to their special spot to watch the sunrise over the lake. The young boy is deaf but has many ways of communicating with his father. They have an extraordinarily strong father-son relationship.The illustrations are beautifully done and show the acceptance of other ways to communicate. I would strongly recommend this book to children between the ages of 4-8. The simplistic way of introducing the subject of people being different(people with disabilities)has been covered sensitively.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite, intimate story of a father and his son setting out to watch the sunrise at the beach. Very tender. The son is hearing impaired: "My dad and I have lots of ways of talking to each other..." Lip reading helps them sneak out of the house so no one else wakes up and wants to come. Though the boy's impairment contributes details to the story, it is primarily the story of a special shared experience between father and son.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story is sweet and simple, and the watercolor images are gorgeous, this book didn't quite meet my expectations for teaching my students about different abilities. I enjoyed the slight mentions of the main character's hearing aids, and his ability to lip read, sign, and use special signals with his father, but I was hoping for more. I still think this book could be a good starting point to open a discussion about different abilities.

[Kathy MacMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early one morning, when it is still dark, a young boy wakes to his special alarm clock. He puts on his hearing aid and his clothes, then goes to wake his father. Together they walk down to the beach. Jacob cannot hear, so he and his father sign or lipread or just squeeze each other’s hands. This poetic story is beautifully illustrated in glowing watercolors.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous children's book about a deaf boy and his father as they go out for a morning walk.

The watercolor illustrations are beautiful enough for a Caldecott Medal (in my humble opinion).

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book with a normal story about a child with learning difficulties. Although the child wore hearing aids and used sign language, the story was about a trip to the beach to watch the sun rise.

[Maura]

This book is good for preschool and kindergarten. The mssage being sent is that everyone does different things in the morning with their parents. I would use this book in my classroom.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

REALLY gorgeous watercolor illustrations, and the simple story is lovely for everyone.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely precious, innocent story with lovely watercolor illustrations. Sap that I am, I almost cried when I read it!