(no subject)

[cahn]

Please rec me books with dads who are major characters (important secondary character is fine) and for whom parenting is an important component of their character, with kids who are older at the time of canon (teenager or above). They don't need to be good parents, necessarily, and they can make horrible mistakes, but they should be (relatively?) non-abusive and clearly love their kid(s).

So far I've got

-Aral Vorkosigan (...I guess he's not super a main character any more, but he casts a pretty long shadow)
-Atticus Finch
-Andrew Wiggin
-Jean Valjean
-Reb Saunders and David Malter
-Van Hohenheim (taking the prize for not being a good parent and making horrible mistakes...)

...this is a much lower percentage of the books we own than I had thought it would be!

Comments

[rushthatspeaks]

Quentin in Diana Wynne Jones' Archer's Goon. Well, they have a younger child too, but otherwise yes.

[cahn]

Ha, I didn't mean to exclude younger kids! You know, I haven't actually read Archer's Goon. (I did this weird thing where when she died I stopped reading her books because I didn't want to run out, which... I should start again.) That also reminds me that Wizard Derk from Dark Lord of Derkholm also qualifies!

[skygiants]

I somehow completely forgot about both Quentin and Derk, but I immediately thought about two DIFFERENT Important DWJ Dads -- the Ogre in The Ogre Downstairs (fakeout antagonist dad who is Trying Very Badly) and Andrew in Enchanted Glass (eventual adopted dad.)

- oh, hey, also [Christopher] Chrestomanci! Though I'm trying to remember how old any of the kids get in the books with him -- I think Julia and Janet are at least 13 by the time of The Pinhoe Egg.

[cahn]

Huh, I haven't read Ogre Downstairs either -- I read Enchanted Glass but apparently don't remember much from it; clearly I need to read it again -- oh, oh, Chrestomanci! Yes, he definitely counts :) <3