Awesome Fathers in YA Literature

In honor of Father's Day, I want to recommend some YA books that have awesome fathers. There are so many books for kids in which the parents are either dead, absent, or uncaring. Lately though, I have read a few books in which there are parents who are present, loving, nurturing, and engaged in the lives of their children. I want to applaud these literary fathers on Father's Day:

Clara's Dad
Stay by Deb Caletti

Clara's father is pretty awesome. He is not without his flaws, but he is a good parent. When things in her life start to go downhill, he notices. He talks to her about it and makes attempts to help her and tries to get her to admit that there's a problem. He realizes the potential risks of her relationship with Christian before she is willing to admit them to herself. It's nice to see a literary parent who pays enough attention to his child to notice when something isn't right. When things get bad, she can call him. When they get really bad, he takes her away from it. And when family issues come up, he talks to Clara and respects her enough to give her the truth, however ugly it may be.

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Anna's Dad

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby

Anna's father is a single parent. He's protective but not sheltering. He threatens all of the lifeguard boys to stay away from her because she is off-limits, but when he sees that she likes one of them and recognizes that he's a nice guy, he encourages a relationship and tells her to invite Tyler over for dinner. Part of Anna's life in their new home involves facing the past and learning more about both of her parents. In this book, the relationship between Anna and Tyler does not overshadow the one between Anna and her father or Anna's issues with her mother, which is nice.

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Annabel's Dad
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

This might seem like a little bit of an odd choice, since we really don't get a whole lot about Annabel's father in the book. But there are a lot of things that I really like about him and I feel like he deserves to be on the list. One of my favorite things about this book are the family dynamics that exist in it. Annabel's father is there. He's quiet a lot of the time, and is somewhat non-confrontational. But the dude lives in a house with his wife and a bunch of daughters. He's surrounded and outnumbered, and doesn't really know how to react at times to all of the girls and their issues. But he's always there, even though we only get him in small doses. He likes to watch the History Channel, and enjoys for Annabel to watch with him. When Annabel's mother is weak, he is always there, being the strong one and lending that strength to her mom. The thing, though, that tells me the most about him in the story is that the events that take place toward the end of the novel give a glimpse of the heartbreak that he feels as a result of Annabel's pain.

My Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I did a post like this for Mother's Day as well, but attentive literary fathers seem like they're even more difficult to come by, so comment and let me know of some other books that you've read that have amazing father figures in them!