by Steven Layne
Dad’s not so good with hammers;
He’s not the best with saws.
With doors that creak or pipes that leak
He’s really a lost cause.
He’s scary with a power drill;
With nuts and bolts he’s bad!
But when my heart needs big repairs,
There’s no one like my dad.
Copyright © 2004 Steven Layne. From Verses for Dad’s Heart. Pelican Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Steven L. Layne is a faculty member in the Department of Education at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, where he teaches courses in literature and reading pedagogy. He is the author of more than one dozen titles published by Pelican, including My Brother Dan’s Delicious and The Teachers’ Night Before Christmas, one of the best-selling books in The Night Before Christmas Series. Layne is also the author of The Principal’s Night Before Christmas, Thomas’s Sheep and the Great Geography Test, and Thomas’s Sheep and the Spectacular Science Project. His novel This Side of Paradise won the 2001 Hal Clement Award for Young Adult Science Fiction. He lives with his wife and children in Saint Charles, Illinois.