Boy gains insights with dad's hair loss

"Where Did Daddy's Hair Go?" by Joe O'Connor, illustrated by Henry Payne (Random House, 40 pages, $14.95)

Unsettled when a stranger at the ballpark addresses his dad as "Baldy," young Jeremiah is even more worried when he overhears Dad begin a sentence with, "Ever since I lost my hair."

How careless can Dad be? Jeremiah, an improbably credulous boy, looks around the house for the misplaced hair.

He examines other hairless things and wonders if pencils, baseball mounds, turtles and other specimens were created that way, or somehow lost their hair.

Jeremiah's father is quite serene about his shiny pate, and after a seaside day inspecting other humans Jeremiah comes to the conclusion that Daddy is perfect just as he is.

Too bad the author and illustrator refrained from having a little more fun with the theme. I was hoping for a unibrow, or at least somebody with a thick thatch of back hair, but the concept is fresh and, on Father's Day, timely. Preschool to age 7.