Product Description

"I'll swap you my dad," I said.

"Oh-oh," said my little sister.

What if you wanted your best friend's two goldfish so much that you'd swap anything for them, even your father?

What if your mother came home and found out what you'd done?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34467 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Review
"A bittersweet, guffaw-out-loud story from the most distinctive partnership in picture books today." -- The Guardian (UK)

"An energetic, eye-catching volume." -- Publishers Weekly

"Delightful." -- Time Out New York Kids

"Leave it to Neil Gaiman to write a zany tale that’s swimmingly good." -- The Washington Missourian

"McKean is in peak form here, with dark, spiky graphics that somehow manage to convey both sweetness and menace." -- Washington Post

"Where the title trade is just the start of a series of juvenile swaps and things get very strange indeed." -- Locus

Review
"An energetic, eye-catching volume." (Publishers Weekly )

"Delightful." (Time Out New York Kids )

"A bittersweet, guffaw-out-loud story from the most distinctive partnership in picture books today." (The Guardian (UK) )

"McKean is in peak form here, with dark, spiky graphics that somehow manage to convey both sweetness and menace." (Washington Post )

"Leave it to Neil Gaiman to write a zany tale that's swimmingly good." (The Washington Missourian )

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the author of many highly acclaimed and award-winning books for children and adults, including the New York Times bestseller Coraline. He is also the author of the picture books The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, both illustrated by Dave McKean, Blueberry Girl, illustrated by Charles Vess, and The Dangerous Alphabet, illustrated by Gris Grimly. Among his many awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.

Customer Reviews

Dead-on Dialogue, Great Art
I really fell in love with this book!

The concept, a series of Dad swaps, may sound cutesy, but the execution is delightful and not the least bit saccharine or repetitive. The children's actions are nuanced in a charming yet realistic manner, and it's easy to freely accept the logic of the book because it is, in essence, child logic. The deadpan and earnest delivery really makes this story.

The layout is graphic novel, but you never get more than two horizontal panels a page. McKean's beautiful artwork suits the book to a tee. The drawings are primarily ink and what appears to be oil pastels, with occasional photographic images and newsprint worked in.

The reading level is probably 1st grade and above, but I'm not a child professional or a parent.

btw, I strongly suggest reading the author's note afterwards. It's quite interesting and explains a lot about the book.

Lovely
This is a wonderfully fun book about a boy who trades his dad for two goldfish. His mother tells him he has to get his dad back, so he goes on an adventure, walking from house to house, swapping items until he finally gets his dad back. His dad seems to have been oblivious to the whole thing, just reading his paper the whole time. A fun book with beautiful illustrations (typical Dave McKean drawings). My 6 year-old daughter loves it.

wonderful picture book from the creative, warped mind of Neil Gaiman
When I read this book, it made me GOL. (guffaw out loud). It is both surreal and "super real" at the same time. True, it's not some sugar-coated didactic story with some lofty moral to teach. The humor, in fact, lies in the fact that it often portrays how children sometimes "really act". At least, children I know. Mainly my own. I can totally see my older son "playing at putting mud down his brother's back" (whom he loves with a passion). And I could see my brother and me in the exchange, "I could be a rock star", boy; "you could be an idiot", girl. And what child wouldn't want to tie his/her sibling up and gag him/her? It's so funny when the mother matter-a-factly unties the sister and asks "Do you know where your father is?"

The boy protagonist, who, by his own admission, thinks of brilliant ideas (like discovering electricity, or outer space, or something), wants those two goldfish that his friend Nathan has, so much that he is willing to trade anything for them. Even his dad. Long suffering, newspaper-reading, imperturbable dad. Despite this genius idea, and in accordance with his sister's prediction, their mother is not amused. She demands that they get rid of the fish, and get their dad back.

Well, it seems that dear old dad is too boring for Nathan, and, through a series of trades, he ends up in a rabbit run that belonged to a kid who had a rabbit named "Galveston". Munching on a carrot. Still reading. So, much to the delight of all involved, everything is restored to it's proper owner, and big brother, with sister in tow, takes dad, still reading, home. I liked the part where, when Patti, the owner of the rabbit, says, "He's not a very good rabbit", and the boy answers, "He's not meant to be. He's a very good daddy."

Mom makes son promise to never trade his dad away again. Which he does, even though sibling rivalry never ends. Such is the stuff of childhood. With a no-nonsense mom, and an unflappable dad, I predict that all will survive. And thrive.

A word about the art: great! The more I looked at it, the more I realized how brilliant it is, and how perfectly Dave McKean's illustrations mesh with Neil Gaiman's text. The style is decidedly post-modern, with it's collage of painting, drawing, and photographs, and I believe that it captures the feeling in the story perfectly. One thing that I noticed is that we see everything from the kids' point of view. Notice how the parents' faces are practically never shown in close up. Just the kids vantage point,and the parents heads are often not in the picture. The illustrations may be rather weird, but they are perfectly expressive. BTW, the words to the story are not printed on the pages, but rather scrawled in speech bubbles, and among the colored pages. As such, it is truly a picture book to be READ TO younger kids, or also, to be enjoyed by older kids and adults who can read well. I liked it.