On Sunday, we celebrate Father’s Day: a day to appreciate, relax with, and celebrate our Dads. Whether it’s in person or a video chat, it’s a day to just let him know you care. Why not share a great story or two?  We have lots of dad-themed materials:

Reading together with Dad:

  • Dads by John Coy – “Celebrate all that fathers do: building, fixing, cooking, cleaning, laughing, crying, hugging, playing and more! John Coy and Wing Young Huie--the author and photographer behind Their Great Gift--reunite for a new book that shows a wide range of fathers and children, particularly highlighting families of color and lower-income families, who often aren't depicted in children's books.” 
  • Father’s Day by Ann Heinrichs – “The third Sunday in June is a time to celebrate fathers and all those who are like fathers. This book discusses the origins of Father's Day and explains how songs, poems, and food can prove useful in showing our appreciation for fathers, stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and brothers.”
  • Mighty Dads by Joan Holub – “Inventively told through James Dean's colorful construction vehicle characters, MIGHTY DADS is an adoring dedication to hardworking fathers and the subtle ways they teach their boys and girls to follow in their tracks. The Dump Trucks learn to get dirty. Crane keeps his little one safe from harm. The busy Cement Mixer gives his daughter a hug. The Forklift cheers his son on. A surprising and touching view of a father's love for his children, MIGHTY DADS is the perfect way to say: I'm proud of you!”  
  • A Father’s Day Thank You by Janet Nolan – “Harvey doesn't know what to get his father for Father's Day. It's especially hard when his older sisters and brother seem so sure that their presents are his favorites. Then Harvey remembers all of the nice things his dad helped him with that week.” 

Getting Crafty for Dad:

  • Father’s Day Gifts by Anastasia Suen – “Easy to follow father's day gift craft instructions for makerspaces, home activities, and classrooms.”
  • Father’s Day Crafts & Gifts by Kim Mitzo Thompson – “Kids will love surprising dad on Father’s Day by making him a special gift! “Father’s Day Crafts & Gifts” includes 12 easy-to-make, gifts and crafts that require no patterns! Just follow the step-by-step directions, and included photograph of each craft, to make the perfect masterpiece for dad. Creative, personalized gift ideas include “Coupon Tool Box,” “Hardware Picture Frame”, “My Dad Rocks!” as well as creative cards for the World’s Best Dad! Also included is a detailed list of materials making these crafts easy, and fun to complete.” 

Fictional Fathers:

  • Hey Dad! by Brian Doyle – “A family car trip across Canada brings Megan and her dad face to face with how sad and happy growing up can be.”
  • Father’s Day by Debbie Macomber – “A boy, a man and a dog. Robin Masterson's ten-year-old son, Jeff, wants to make friends with the dog next door. The problem is that Blackie belongs to Cole Camden--the unfriendliest man in the Mastersons' new neighborhood.Cole hadn't always been so solitary, so aloof. The deaths of his wife and son had embittered him, and that was something Robin could understand. Her own much-loved husband had died when Jeff was just a baby.Now, for the first time in ten years, Robin finds herself responding to a man. To Cole Camden. But is he interested in her--or in replacing the family he'd lost?”
  • Dad by William Wharton – “John Tremont, a middle-aged man with a family, is summoned to his mother's bedside after she has suffered a heart attack. When he arrives, he finds her shaken but surviving; it is his father, left alone, who is unable to cope, who begins to fail, to slip away from life. Joined by his nineteen-year-old son, John suddenly becomes enmeshed in the frightening, consuming, endless minutiae of caring for a beloved, dying parent. He also finds himself inescapably confronting his own middle age, jammed between his son's feckless impatience to get on with his life and his father's heartbreaking willingness to let go. A story of the love that binds generations, Dad celebrates the universe of possibilities within every individual life.

Different kinds of Dads:

  • Father’s Day by Matthew Zapruder – “The poems in Matthew Zapruder's fifth collection ask, how can one be a good father, partner, and citizen in the early twenty-first century? Zapruder deftly improvises upon language and lyricism as he passionately engages with these questions during turbulent, uncertain times. Whether interrogating the personalities of the Supreme Court, watching a child grow off into a distance, or tweaking poetry critics and hipsters alike, Zapruder maintains a deeply generous sense of humor alongside arich vein of love and moral urgency. The poems in Father's Day harbor a radical belief in the power of wonder and awe to sustain the human project while guiding it forward.” 
  • Sh*t my Dad Says by Justin Halpern – “This hilarious book about a son's relationship with his foul-mouthed father by the comedy writer who created the massively popular Twitter feed of the same name. A few months ago, comedy writer Justin Halpern, 29, found himself living at home with his 73-year-old father after being dumped by his longtime girlfriend. Sam Halpern had never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he was smart enough to write down all the ridiculous things his dad said to him, like "The worst thing you can be is a liar....Okay fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but THEN, number two is liar. Nazi 1, Liar 2," and "Everybody loves that Da Vinci code book. Bullshit, it sucks. I read it. It's for all the dummies." These quotes, or philosophies, have become "Shit My Dad Says," a Twitter page that in less than a month was being followed by over 500,000 people, had spawned articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as inspiring calls from movie and television producers, celebrities, and just about everyone else who heard about the site. SH*T MY DAD SAYS, Justin Halpern's first book, is a mix of his dad's quotations and longer-form essays in the vein of David Sedaris and Chelsea Hander. It is a hilarious, unforgettable account of a unique father-son relationship and the filthy words of wisdom that have defined it.” 
  • Every Day Should be Father’s Day by Jennifer Basye Sander – “Celebrate the dads in your life!  After all they've done for us, dads everywhere deserve to be appreciated on a daily basis, rather than waiting all year for a card and tie (or some power tools). Though the holiday has morphed over the years into more of a commercial event, it's high time we got back to the idea of making Dad feel treasured and appreciated all the time. Think back on the many things, big and small, your father has done for you over the years--isn't it time you started making those same gestures in the other direction? We think so! It is never too early, or for that matter, too late, to make a parent feel special. In these pages, you'll find idea after idea that will encompass a wide variety of activities to get you thinking about how to make your dad feel special, even if you don't live close by. Also included are quotes, and special stories and memories from numerous people about what makes fatherhood, or their own father, special. Go ahead and remember to buy that card and bring over some treats on the actual Father's Day, but in the meantime, here are some ways to make every day count..."

Fathers on Film:

  • My Dad is Baryshnikov - Moscow, 1986, the heat of Perestroika. Borya is an average clumsy teenager who is miraculously admitted to the legendary Bolshoi Ballet School. The boy is convinced that he will become a ballet dancer like his father, Mikhail Baryshnikov. But is this father real or imaginary? 
  • 3 Days with Dad - The last thing Eddie Mills (Larry Clarke) wants to do is go home to deal with his dying Dad (Brian Dennehy). But the Catholic guilt gnaws at him, and he returns home to his crazy family, an overbearing step-mother (Leslie Ann Warren), and his bear of a father. Once there, Eddie is confronted with a revelation that forces him to deal with the past he has always avoided. 
  • World’s Greatest Dad - When his son's body is found in a humiliating accident, a lonely high school teacher (Robin Williams) inadvertently attracts an overwhelming amount of community and media attention after covering up the truth with a phony suicide note. 

Happy Father’s Day!