Willie’s Dad
Stanley Williams

Reviewed by Ashley Merrill

What I’m a little stuck on is the topic of the book. It’s about a man who committed some sort of crime that makes it so he is incarcerated for a very, very long time. His son and mother of his child come to visit him. His son is only in kindergarten and only remembers seeing his dad once or twice.  His mother and he, along with his mother’s friend Duane go and visit his father. His father makes the decision and tells them that he is not going to be out of jail until his son is a grown man, and would like Duane to marry Tina and become his son’s father. He then stands up and walks off as he cries. The story ends with Tina and Duane getting married and Duane telling Willie that his father did a lot of bad things, but made a hard choice and should be respected for it.

I think that this subject matter is a little too intense for young children. I would not recommend a parent reading this, or giving this to their children to read. I suppose if someone were going through this exact situation, and their father was in jail and decided to make the choice to break ties with their child in the same way this man in the story did, then I suppose this would be an okay story to have your child read. Other than that, this story would not be appropriate in my opinion.

A lot of different situations can play out when a child has a father in jail. He may deny being the father, he may want nothing to do with the kid, the kid may want nothing to do with the father, or the father may want to continue being a part of the child’s life and would not want the mother of his child to remarry. This is why I do not think this is appropriate for a child to read; it is usually not a happy ending in these types of situations, so why give the child hope when it will only be crushed?

Again, I think Stanley Williams has a talent for writing, but he needs to find a topic that is appropriate for children.