The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish, by Neil Gaiman 

From Sandman creator Gaiman, comes this delightfully quirky picture book for all readers who ever tried to pawn of their little brother, sister or dad to the neighbor kid for one of his cool new toys.  Surreal illustrations by Dave McKean (who teamed with Gaiman on the graphic novels, MirrorMask and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch: a romance) land this one in the Juvenile Illustrated Fiction (JIF) section at the library, which means the picture book towers full of picture books that don’t necessarily have kid friendly themes.  However, The Day I Swapped My Dad…is a safe and fun read for kids.  Each page is loaded with text in a comic book format which requires a longer attention span for young readers to get through, but those who stick with it will end up curled over with laughter at the conclusion.

Though my son, Finn, didn’t quite make it all the way through in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down and found myself dreaming of those days as a kid when I truly coveted my neighbors toys and would have traded anything, yes anything to get my hands on them.  But in the end I never lost my dad in any deals.

reviewed by: Jonas