Perfect for Father's Day read-alouds, these picture books show a variety of dads — from those on lily pads to those in eucalyptus forests, from fantasy kingdoms to suburban parks — raising, teaching, and loving their children.

In David Ezra Stein's Tad and Dad, little frog Tad loves his father so much that he can hardly bear to be away from him, even at night. Kids will chuckle at Tad's energetic bedtime antics; parents will laugh with grim identification when Tad starts to swim and grow but still crowds onto Dad's lily pad to sleep. Stein uses color to great effect in this little book that is both a celebration of the father-child relationship and a good-night book that will hold up to repeat readings. (Penguin/Paulsen, 2–5 years)

In The Big Princess by Taro Miura (a companion to The Tiny King), a childless king finds a bug-size princess in the castle gardens. His and the queen's love for her grows daily, but, worrisomely, so does the princess. How to stop her from physically outgrowing the castle (and hence the family)? Miura's digital collages feature improbably harmonizing elements: brightly colored, blocky geometric shapes coexist with photography, while characters whose faces assume Hello Kitty–like blankness nevertheless live out emotional scenes. (Candlewick, 3–6 years)

Bernard Waber's Ask Me gives an idyllic view of an ambling, chatting father-and-daughter pair. But there's more to their walk than meets the eye; the queries and responses they share capture the kind of give-and-take that gradually refines a small child's language. "Ask me what I like." "What do you like?"…"I like bugs." "Insects?" "No, bugs." With spare, informal colored-pencil lines; welcoming white space; and an eye for color, action, and witty detail, Suzy Lee depicts the two figures in a landscape littered with bright autumn leaves. This outing might inspire young listeners to form their own questions or can help tuck in a toddler with a sweet good night. (Houghton, 3–6 years)

Claire Saxby's nonfiction picture book Emu relates the life cycle and habits of those birds through the story of a male emu who raises his young in an Australian eucalyptus forest (with this species, the female departs after egg-laying). Graham Byrne's spiky digital illustrations perfectly display the emu's hairlike feathering and their awkward-looking flightless movement. Each double-page spread includes the main narrative, in slightly larger type, along with additional statistics and facts about emus in a smaller, more casual font. (Candlewick, 5–8 years)

From the June 2015 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.