(Preschool) A very small girl, boldly sketched and dressed in bright orange and green, clambers up her very tall Daddy, who plays his role with such verisimilitude that he's depicted in a tweedy stone gray. He's also suitably immobile, moving just once to accommodate the daring ascent (""The Daddy Mountain has bony knees and bends them for me so I can sit and catch my breath""). Meanwhile, the intrepid climber is all energy and strategy (""You have to be careful or you could lose your balance.... I hold on tight and go not too fast.... Now this is a tricky part, also scary. I swing one foot wide as I can onto a shoulder...""). Finally, triumph: with a vertical foldout, the red-haired moppet perches on Daddy's head while Daddy himself, tousled and as gleeful as his daughter, bursts into vivid color. It's a quintessentially simple idea, developed with delicious logic and Feiffer's witty limning of the girl's heroic postures and emotive face. Reader, be prepared--emulation may ensue; athleticism required. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

PreS-Gr. 1. For families looking for an alternative to soppy Father's Day fare, Feiffer offers a visual riff on the concept of Dad as jungle gym. I have to be brave, says a little girl at the (literal) foot of the Daddy Mountain, seen as a series of decontextualized body segments sketched in charcoal greys. She shinnies upward from loafers to shins and beyond, a vintage-Feiffer bundle of windmilling arms, jutting knees and elbows, and mutable facial expressions. Step-by-step commentary (Now this is the tricky part . . . ) accompanies her ascent, which concludes with a vertical foldout revealing Dad transformed from faceless landform to a grinning accomplice, his daughter perched atop his head. Given the choice between this and Feiffer's Bark, George (1999) , children may reach for the latter for its brighter colors and greater variety of characters. In the end, this may resonate more with grown-ups, who will nod in recognition of daddies' special fondness for roughhousing--and laugh at the last-page depiction of an apoplectic mom: I think she's going to faint. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist

Parents who enjoy interactive play should select this book, in which a child scales a stoical "Daddy Mountain." Each page focuses on the red-haired knee-high girl who tells the story. The father, drawn in a nubbly, granite-like charcoal that contrasts with the watercolor-and-ink sketches of his small daughter, is too tall to fit on a page; readers see only his legs and torso as the child makes her steep ascent. The girl fortifies herself before beginning ("Fruit juice gives me energy"), then hauls herself up a pants-leg ("It's harder than you think"). The father's knees obligingly bend to give the mountaineer a rest until she can grip his belt, but otherwise he offers no assistance. Giving instructions to the audience as she goes, the girl reaches his button-down shirt: "If you grab hold of his skin, he'll get mad." Using a shoulder and ear, she drags herself to the summit and calls her mother to "Come quick!" At the terrific conclusion, a vertical gatefold opens up to picture the gray Daddy Mountain transformed into a grinning full-color person (with a girl on his head). After several darker-themed but equally satisfying books like The House Across the Street and I'm Not Bobby!, Feiffer breaks for some lighthearted, affectionate fare. He writes and draws from the girl's point of view, emphasizing the relative sizes of child and parent. He makes a plaything of the adult, who silently endures all manner of humiliation during this game. Youngsters will want to try this sport at home. Ages 2-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Another crowd-pleaser from Feiffer, this one featuring a surprisingly (for him) non-neurotic child who takes on a tricky challenge: climbing her standing father. Freely changing relative sizes to make the task seem all the more forbidding, Feiffer depicts her in bright oranges, greens, and flesh tones against monochrome paternal segments. Radiating determination, she negotiates ankles, knees, belt, shirt, and shoulder in succession until, in a climactic scene that folds up and bursts out in full color, she perches exuberantly atop the head of her heroically proportioned papa. Mama may cover her eyes in horror on the final page, but children will share the young mountaineer's triumph--and is that a layer of metaphor lurking beneath? Surely not. (Picture book. 5-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

PreS-Beginning at his toes, a little girl laboriously climbs up her father until she is perched triumphantly on top of his head. Along the way, she provides practical advice on making this a successful procedure: "Remember, the Daddy Mountain must wear a shirt. Because if you grab hold of his skin, he'll get mad." Although Feiffer keeps a reasonable amount of suspense going during this combination ordeal/adventure, there is little substance to inspire rereading and little appeal for youngsters who have outgrown attempting this feat. What story there is descends into stereotypes: when the child reaches her goal (as shown on a two-page vertical foldout), her father nonchalantly declares, "No problem, she's fine," and seems proud of his daughter's accomplishment, while her mother's reaction is to faint. The illustrations are vintage Feiffer; for most of the book, Daddy's body is drawn-mountain still-in charcoal, while the girl is depicted with much more fluid black lines and bright colors. While the pictures capture the full range of her emotions, they do not elevate the title to anything other than an additional purchase.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.