By Jerilyn Marler
A gentle picture book about the sad, grumpy stretch a young child goes through while a parent is deployed with the military.
Lily's daddy is away with the military, and Lily hates it. She's sad. She's grumpy. She doesn't want to do the things she used to like doing. The book stays with all of that instead of hurrying her to feel better. It names the missing and the crankiness one at a time and lets them be real. Then Lily and her mom start finding small things that help: counting down the days, keeping busy, holding on to the fact that Daddy is coming home. Jerilyn Marler wrote it after watching her own granddaughter live through a parent's deployment.
A lot of deployment books head straight for brave and proud. This one lets the sadness and the short temper come first. Some children in the thick of missing a parent feel unseen by a story that only wants to cheer them up, and Lily hands them a character who is out of sorts the same way they are. The help, the countdown and the small daily routines, comes in the second half, once those feelings have been on the page.