Issue Index

Full-Time Dads;

The Magazine for Caregiver Fathers

Issue 24

Book Reviews

By Full-Time Dads

The Penny Whistle Any Day is a Holiday Party Book by Meredith Brokaw & Annie Gilbar
published by Fireside Books

Fun Time, Family Time by Susan Perry
published by Avon Books

You might already say, "There's never a dull moment around here," now, but just wait until you get ahold of these books! You'll realize what a dull rut you've been in all this time without even knowing it.

While they are somewhat different in approach, both books deal with the same subject: putting more into, and getting a whole lot more out of, every ordinary day. The Any Day is a Holiday Party book suggests about 24 party ideas for kids. And we're not talking the tired old idea of having parties on Christmas or other ordinary holidays. The idea is that any day is a good day for a party, and Brokaw and Gilbar (who also collaborated on the rest of the Penny Whistle series: Sick in Bed, Christmas, Traveling With Kids, Lunchbox, etc.) can show you how, with specific games and activities, recipes and planning tips. Chinese New Year, Earth Day, Friday the 13th, and the first day of Spring are all fair game, along with quite a few others.

Fun Time, Family Time, on the other hand, is chock full of smaller ideas for activities, adventures and rituals for the whole family to do together. Susan Perry, author of Playing Smart, offers ideas for making everyday activities into special events, celebrations for the family to share. There are special occasion games and every-day rituals that can be incorporated into your family routine to make everyone feel special and to bring the family closer together. Our family has taken the idea of choosing a word at random from the dictionary each morning, and trying to use it during the day. The kids look forward to the ritual of choosing the word, and it gives us another thing to talk about at dinner.

Neither of these books will give you things for the kids to do while you do something else. All of the ideas in both books require your participation. But that's the whole idea. Either book will give you loads of ideas for things the whole family can do together, and have a lot of fun at the same time. Our family thrives on our together-time, and while we already do a lot of things together-meals, evening story time, etc.-there's always room for more.

Copyright 1996 Full-Time Dads