Father figures

"Father Figures: Three Wise Men Who Changed a Life" (2003) by Kevin Sweeney. In this era when so many prep athletes are reared in single-parent homes or by their grandparents, the dog thinks this is required reading for any young person who is missing either a dad or a mom.

Sweeney was one of six children in a struggling Irish-Catholic family in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco. His father died when he was 3 1/2 years old. His mother somehow shepherded the brood to adulthood on a modest secretary's salary and through the goodwill of many old family friends.

A young Kevin - in between his adventures delivering newspapers and struggling to hit curveballs - formulated a plan to fill the void left by his departed dad. So he adopted three wise men from the neighborhood - fathers themselves - and observed them. They became fathers by proxy, all teaching him different life lessons.

The dog must admit that Sweeney is a former home-boy. We grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same schools. But back in the day, nobody suspected he was smart enough to go to Cal or become press secretary to Gary Hart or serve in the Clinton administration - let alone write a touching, instructive, at times hilarious book.

Sweeney is not a friend of the dog; he's a few years younger. But I heartily recommend his quick read of a book to families or teachers trying to teach young people how to cope with the absence of a parent.