How to use this Page

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 4, 2012

Alan Lawrence Sitomer is a nationally renowned speaker and was California’s Teacher of the Year in 2007. He is also the author of multiple works for young readers, including Nerd Girls, the Hoopster trilogy, The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez, Cinder-Smella, and The Alan Sitomer BookJam.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughters. Just in time for Father’s Day, Alan talks to TCBR about his newest picture book Daddies Do it Different (Hyperion, 2012).

TCBR: Daddies Do it Different. How so? And why do you think they do do it differently?

Alan Lawrence Sitomer: As daddies, we live in a new era. Look around at how amazingly involved the dads of today are in their young children’s lives. I mean back when I was a kid, they didn’t even have daddies—all we had were “fathers” who doled out gruff chores and did things like take us to baseball games in order to metaphorically teach us the nuances of life from the bleacher seats.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad but still, these days, no matter where you look you see it: dads are taking a more active, involved role in their children’s lives than ever before. Dads know how to swaddle, dads go to Saturday morning children’s fitness classes, dads far and wide change diapers without blinking an eye.

What I really see is that dads have embraced the joy of being a parent in the way that moms have done for thousands of years. And truly, it is filling our collective hearts with delight. (I really do believe that dads of yore have no idea all the good stuff they’ve been missing.)

Having said all that, daddies aren’t mommies; we have our own style. Our own flair. Thus, the phrase Daddies Do It Different. One way is not necessarily more “right” than another way . . . it’s just different.

From a birthday party to bathtime, you’ve created an entertaining book on how father’s put their own spin on day-to-day events (and special occasions) in a child’s life. Inspired by your own experiences as a father, which experience in the book would you consider a personal highlight?

A great many scenes from Daddies Do It Different come straight from my own life. Jamming a banana up my nose in the middle of the supermarket just to get a smile out of my daughter? I’ve done it. Pigging out on a little kid’s birthday cake by having two or three slices while all the children at the event (i.e. the invited guests) are limited to “just one piece?” I’ve done it. Turning the entire bathroom into a swimming pool while using ¾ of a bottle of bubble bath in a troubled attempt to get my dirty little honey-bunch clean? Done that, too. Indeed, fatherhood has brought ou

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 4, 2012

Enter to win an autographed copy of Alan Lawrence Sitomer’s Daddies Do it Different.

Perfect for a family read this Father’s Day … or any day, for that matter!

Giveaway begins June 4, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends July 1, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

Reading level: Ages 3-7

Hardcover: 40 pages

Overview: Just in time for Father’s Day, this hilarious picture book takes a high-spirited look at the way dads put their own spin on different parts of a child’s life–from going to a birthday party to bathtime. Alan Sitomer’s debut picture book is pulled from his own experiences as a father and winningly complemented with delightful art by Abby Carter.

About the author:  Alan Lawrence Sitomer is a nationally renowned speaker and was California’s Teacher of the Year in 2007. He is also the author of multiple works for young readers, including Nerd Girls, the Hoopster trilogy, The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez, Cinder-Smella, and The Alan Sitomer BookJam.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughters. For more information, visit Alan’s website: http://www.alanlawrencesitomer.com/

How to enter:

• Fill out the required fields below

• Enter once daily

Giveaway Rules:

• Shipping Guidelines: This book giveaway is open to all participants with a US or Canadian mailing addresses.
• Giveaway begins June 4, 2012, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends July 1, 2012, at 11:59 P.M. PST, when all entries must be received. No purchase necessary. See official rules for details. View our privacy policy.

Prizing courtesy of Hyperion Disney.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

I made a beeline for Alan Sitomer, Jon Scieszka, and Gordon Korman’s session, “AUTHOR STRAND: THREE YA AUTHORS TALK COMEDY, FUN, AND SMILES (A.K.A. THE POWER OF GETTING READERS TO PEE THEIR PANTS!)”, on Saturday afternoon at NCTE.  I managed to get a seat for myself, Ruth, and two other colleagues in the second row [...]

I was born on the Upper East Side of New York City. Private schools, elite early education, dad (a lawyer) drove a spanking new Mercedes Benz.

Then my parents got divorced.  Bitter, brutal, devastating. In sixth grade I suddenly found myself at a school that was more than 50% African American and even the most advanced classes were ridiculously elementary to me. I remember thinking, “I did this stuff years ago” when the teachers passed out material.

So, did I flourish into a Harvard Valedictorian? Naw, I became a screw-off.

Not just any screw-off though… a screw-off who could easily get straight A’s if he wanted to. In a way, that can be a teacher’s worst nightmare. (Side note: Of course today, as both an author and an educator, I am revisited by exactly these same type of kids. Karma has a wicked sense of humor, doesn’t it?)

Ultimately, I really started to fall in love with sports at this time of my life and I became friends with tons of black kids. For me this was especially important because, on the playing field, color quickly disappeared and ability trumped race.

I love that aspect of sports and clearly, it’s a theme that can be found in some of my books. (Who you are matters more than what you look like and character trumps skin color – things such as that.)

Back at middle school, I also saw how the entire system seemed to treat kids differently based on the color of their skin. Walk into any low-incolme, high minority population school in this country and chances are you will be struck by how overt this tenor seems to be. High expectations were, well, expected of me back in middle and high school. Not so much for the kids of color. Obviously, all of this informs my career as both a writer and a teacher today.

Looking back, it’s clear that the divorce of my parents shaped my life in many, many unpredictable ways. I doubt anyone could have ever foreseen that my firsthand discovery of the living, breathing monster that is racism in American education (today as well as then) would be have been one of them. And the manner in which their divorce still plays a role in my life, more than 30 years later, is quite remarkable.

I relate to broken home kids. Always have, always will. The pain not only cuts deep, it etches who you are.

Ultimately, however, I believe in the power of literature to heal. I think that books can be used as a tool to open eyes, create empathy, and build better understanding and deeper thinking about issues.

Therefore, when people ask me if I think that books can be used as a tool to combat the effects of racism and prejudice in society, I say “YES!”

But books can be used as a tool to combat ignorance in all forms. In a way, that’s what books are all about. Spreading knowledge through the art of story. It’s why I read them and in a way, it’s why I write them. In each of my books I am discovering things about myself in a way that I also hopes allows others to discover something about their own inner worlds… via a reading experience that genuinely fulfills them in a way that only books can do.

 I teach. I