You Can Do Anything, Daddy

If your dad is willing to save you from pirates, gorilla pirates, robot gorilla pirates and even robot gorilla pirates from Mars, you know he'll do anything for you. And if that makes your dad hungry and thirsty or if he gets cuts and bruises, you know just how to take care of him right back. An adventurous tale of the heroic lengths fathers and sons will go for each other that will elicit gasps, giggles and warm contented sighs.

Publishers Weekly

It's bedtime, which means it's a perfect time for a boy to ask his father one of the most important questions of all: "Daddy, if I got taken by pirates, would you save me?" "Of course, Son," the man assures him, which only encourages the boy to spin out increasingly more elaborate perils. They culminate in the child's abduction by "robot gorilla pirates from Mars," who have a nefarious plan to shoot him into space. However, Daddy, who may look mild-mannered, nonetheless possesses the guts and ingenuity worthy of Indiana Jones, and can take whatever his offspring's imagination dishes out. Rex (Truck Duck) depicts each of the vignettes with bold, vivacious cartooning, and youngsters should get a kick out of watching the pirates mutate from skuzzy buccaneers into something resembling lizard-like androids. And after father and son's mutual whimsies conjure up a decisive defeat of the villains thus proving the irrefutable truth of the title it's time for the boy to prove he's a chip off the old block by offering some impressive assurances of his own (hint: they involve proffering bandages and kissing boo-boos). Good, goofy fun, and an ultimately heartwarming homage to the father-son bond. Ages 4-up. (Mar.)

Michael Rex lives in the Bronx, New York. He's a big fan of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, but feels that it's biased against giant trampling monsters and man-eating plants.