Difficult to Recommend

Artwork copyright Albert Whitman

At Daddy’s On Saturdays

By Linda Walvoord Girard

Albert Whitman & Co., Chicago, 1987

 Reviewed by Laura Harting

            This book is quite dated with pictures of telephones with cords and letters coming in the mail.  I think a child in 2014 would have difficulty relating to these ideas and images.

            Katie’s daddy moves out and Katie feels discarded, angry, and sad.  She is worried that she might not see her father again and that he will forget about her. This story is about Daddy assuring Katie that he will not forget about her and keeping his commitment to pick her up and spend time with her every Saturday. 

            This book addresses the feelings and worries about divorce of an elementary school aged child. However, there are many other more recent books that address these same issues, making it difficult to recommend this book for a child today.

Laura Harting, LCSW, is a child and family therapist in Paoli, Pennsylvania.