Didi is a hyperkinetic toddler with a blonde ponytail, round tummy, and an infectious enthusiasm for her Sunday morning walks with her Dad (no Mom in evidence) on Brooklyn’s riverside Promenade. Marie-Louise Gay’s breezy illustrations – watercolour and pen and ink – convey the gusty weather and bustling street life of a Brooklyn weekend. On spacious double-page spreads, Didi and her Dad bounce along, their rush and energy conveyed in pale blue “speed lines” and in the whirling activity of the pigeons, dogs, street musicians, and passers-by.

Despite the charm of the illustration, with so many details to capture a young reader’s attention, there’s some difficulty with the text. Didi and her Dad communicate in terse, vehement monosyllables or phrases. “‘Wake!’ she says.

‘Sleep.’ He yawns.

‘Out!’ she shouts.

‘Pants!’ he cries.”

Perhaps it’s only my grammarian impatience with the tale’s repetitive slang (“Didi, go slow!” Dad constantly exhorts, to which Didi always says “No!”) but the text grates and grows wearisome with its overly exclamatory conversations. The affection between father and child, depicted so gaily in the pictures, has little chance to flower in their hectic verbal exchanges.

That’s a pity, because Didi’s happy responsiveness to the sights and sounds of the river walk could make for an appealing read-aloud. Marilyn Singer is a good wordsmith – her last sentence, describing the father and child going home in a sudden rain shower, delightfully evokes the “skippy, drippy, sparkly, parkly, perfect Promenade.” Moments like that, combined with the inimitable and reliable warmth of Marie-Louise Gay’s characterizations, make this picture book worthwhile.