World Famous Comics: The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
By: Neil Gaiman Publisher: HarperTrophy Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: HarperTrophy Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 64 Publication Date: October 01, 2006 Reading Level: Ages 4-8 Release Date: September 26, 2006
What about Dad As a reader and collector of children's literature, I find this book charming. Few books are devoted to relationships between Dad and kids. This carries with it some patterns of relationship many will find in their own families. Let's hear it for DADS!
Out there Picked up this book by chance, and my 6 yr old loved it (as did I). The irreverance about the dad, who's basically not paying attention, is funny, and taps into kids hidden feelings. And the connect-the-dots effect of the story is very appealing.
Funny Absurdism -- with a VERY nasty edge! One minor problem for me, that is evidently not a problem for many others, was the art. I was put off by the blotchy, surrealistic, color-schemes, which were distracting, and rarely added to whatever charm the line-drawings had.
Getting past that, I was able to enjoy the silly story. Humor is often generated when the tension is created by horror or fear, but then is punctured by absurdity.
All decent people should be horrified by the idea of buying and selling other human beings like objects, in pursuit of materialistic goals. Here, however, the absurdity of the situation breaks the tension. We know that virtually no real child would want to sell their father. Moreover, the idea of this rather useless dad permitting himself to be bartered all over town by children, without ever once looking up from his newspaper, is completely nonsensical. I suppose children might laugh, just as I did.
Another saving grace is that, even though the story is told from the point of view of the creepy little sociopath who sells his dad, there were other characters for me to root for. I was completely on the side of the little sister, who (quite properly) objects and protests the scheme. She (quite properly) rats him out to his mother. The mother is also suitably furious, and makes this little materialist promise never to do sell his dad again. Morever, since the bulk of the story concerns the quest to RECOVER the bartered-off dad, even the boy is doing the right thing for much of the narrative.
But there's a catch. You see, he never promised anything about not selling his little sister. The last panel shows the brother's huge shadow, mouth open with glee, reaching like an ogre for his little girl, who looks small, isolated, helpless.
This time, I did not laugh.
Why not? This time, sadly, the absurdity of the situation does not punctuate the horror. It is not absurd enough, and it is too horrific. We do not think the boy is joking. Earlier in the tale, we actually saw the little sister bound and gagged by the older brother to prevent her ratting on him to Mom (a disturbing enough scene in its own right). Moreover the pictures make the boy look mush larger and stronger than his little sister -- the situation lacks the obvious jokiness of bartering off one's much-larger dad while he never looks up from his newspaper. Even the THREAT of selling your little sister to your friends is potentially a nasty and frightening form of abuse.
Gaiman's afterword tells us the story reflects real and bitter hostility that existed between two of his children, and further reflects similar bitter hostility between himself and his own sister. This seems to confirm that the final panel reflects genuine malice. How, then is it a joke? If bitter hostility between siblings is a problem -- and it often is -- ought not the message, in a picture book ostensibly marketed for children, be a bit more positive? Payback time, little girl -- I guess you shouldn't have ratted out your creepy older brother. Funny to Gaiman, perhaps, but not to me.
My Nephew's Favourite Book My four year old nephew loves this book. He laughs so much when I read this. I was a huge Neil Gaiman fan when I was a teenager, I had no idea he had kid's books out. I will be buying more of his kid's books!!!
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