Mad at Dad

Written and illustrated by Janie Hao

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1026-3

32 pp.

Ages 2-6

October 2024 

What gets this child riled up? It's her dad who is just being a dad, trying to get her to eat her vegetables so he can tidy up the dishes. But when she gets this big feeling, she has an arsenal of strategies to get her out of it.

From Mad at Dad, written and illustrated by Janie Hao

She tries a host of activities to get her out it her anger. She talks it out with her stuffies, she counts, she draws, and she does cartwheels. She tries quiet activities that might not be so, and energy-burning ones that might help her let go of her annoyance at her father. She might not like being mad but it's an emotion that's hard to let go of. 

From Mad at Dad, written and illustrated by Janie Hao

With time, that anger transforms into sadness, probably from the exhaustion of those big feelings, and her dad, the original source of her ire, is there to help her through.

From Mad at Dad, written and illustrated by Janie Hao

Like the emotions the child is feeling, bigger than just being displeased, Mad at Dad is larger than its 9" x 9" format. Mad at Dad is an interactive picture book that allows the reader to fold-out pages that allow for immense four-page spreads that are equal to the size of her emotions. Not only will young readers get the full force of her wrath, depicted with furrowed brows and a clenched jaw–when she's not releasing outraged squiggles from her expressive mouth–they'll see the bigness of those feelings in the slams and the shouts and the cries. Janie Hao, a Sheridan College grad of illustration, gives the full range of anger in her character's fury, using colours of red and yellow, black and orange. It's not until the child is wearing herself out and crashing under a comforter in the dark that the tones become primarily blue. Fortunately, her dad also brings the light and colour with him. 

From Mad at Dad, written and illustrated by Janie Hao

Janie Hao's digitally-rendered artwork relays the full scope of this rollercoaster of a father-daughter relationship but also the changes that happen as the child attempts to calm herself with strategies readers' own parents and teachers might have taught them. It'll be refreshing for young children to see that not everything works and that they just need to try something different. And even if nothing works, time will heal and remind them that the big deal that started the anger does not have to remain a big deal and being mad at dad doesn't have to be a permanent state. In fact, it might be the very thing that reminds them of the love that exists between a parent and child regardless of tough moments.