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Night Job

On Friday nights when the sun goes down, a young boy joins his father for a motorcycle ride to the school where dad has a cleaning job. Sometimes the boy helps with jobs like sweeping the halls, but most of the time he is engaged in his own childlike activities: shooting hoops in the school gym, listening to a baseball game on the radio, reading a book and then sleeping on a couch in the school library. Although the father is clearly working hard, there are some gentle, intimate moments between the two. They take a break at 10:00 pm to eat egg salad sandwiches in the courtyard, they hoot together as they ride the motorcycle over a hill on the way home, they fall asleep together in the big recliner once there. The soft, muted illustrations give a strong sense of a quiet night where father and son appear to be the only ones awake, and the language of the narrative is stunningly evocative of an important shared experience between father and son. ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Illustrated by G. Brian Karas

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 4-7
Age Range: PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Format: Picture book
Subjects: Fathers Nighttime Work and Labor

Publisher: Candlewick
Publish Year: 2018
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9780763662387

CCBC Location: Picture Book, Hesse

Night Job