Sam and his Dad
This brightly colored children’s book about a game of golf teaches lessons on honesty and hard work.
In an adorable picture book centered on the game of golf, Robert Loran Floyd shares the life lessons of honesty and self-confidence. Sam and his Dad is a fun, brightly colored volume with lyrical text.
Saturdays are Sam’s favorite day of the week, when it doesn’t matter that he is smaller than the other kids at school and that he isn’t very good at team sports. On Saturdays, Sam plays golf with his dad. Sam is determined, on one particular Saturday, to get his first par, and on the fifth hole, he almost does—except he accidentally bumps the ball with his club, causing him to get a bogey. He struggles a little bit, but he’s honest in telling his dad that he had four strokes for that hole. They continue their game, and as they are ending at the eighteenth hole, the surrounding people watch. Will Sam get his dream of par? Or something even better?
Floyd has crafted a fun, sing-song-style rhyming book. He captures Sam’s excitement in a child-friendly way: “His mom made them breakfast / as Sam tried to wait, all the time / worrying that they would be late. / His dad finished his coffee, and Sam / ate his eggs. A rush of excitement / ran through his legs.” Floyd also excels at conveying the feel of the moment: “He swung toward the ball with all of his might. / The people all watched this amazing sight. / The ball went flying straight off of that tee. / Right in the fairway for everyone to see.” The typesetting causes some stumbling, however, because the rhymes sometimes occur in the middle of lines of text rather than at the ends.
The bright, digitally-rendered illustrations beautifully depict the colors of a golf course, especially the greens. There is also added texture, such as flying sand when Sam hits the ball out of a sand trap, and highlights and lowlights throughout, giving the illustrations a good deal of depth. The characters’ facial expressions are both interesting and delightful.
A pleasant and colorful story for young and old alike, Sam and his Dad teaches life lessons to all ages.
Reviewed by
Beth VanHouten
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
