Fish for father a short-lived good deal

This fun story about what can go wrong with a seemingly terrific bargain starts with a boy who wants a pair of goldfish that belong to his friend. The boy thinks highly of himself.

"Some people have great ideas maybe once or twice in their life, and then they discover electricity or fire or outer space or something," he tells us. "I mean, the kind of brilliant ideas that change the whole world. Some people never have them at all. I get them two or three times a week."

This time the brainstorm is to swap his father for fish. Dad could have vetoed the deal except he was too busy reading his newspaper. It falls to the little sister to be the voice of reason. "Oh-oh," she says.

It falls to Mom to object when she discovers the man of her house has been traded to someone else's house. She sends her son to retrieve her husband. Little sister tags along on the quest, although her brother doesn't appear to appreciate her prescient understanding of the circumstances in which they find themselves wandering.

It is an amusing story in which the kids' behavior is what one would expect, although the circumstances that prompted it are unexpected. The children bicker with apparent affection. The sister tells everyone at school that her brother is a space alien pretending to be her brother. He threatens to tell everyone that she is "secretly fat." Kids of varying ages will be entertained, although it is unlikely they will learn any of the kinds of Valuable Lessons that much children's literature is designed to impart.

The story is suitable, I would guess, for almost anyone older than the age at which they have started to think that maybe discussion doesn't always have to end when they hear, "Because I'm the parent and I say so, that's why." If that statement is still conclusive for your child, it might be wise to hold off on The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.

Dave McKean's drawings in the book are not as bizarre as his cover illustration in which a goldfish bowl has replaced a man's head. His art inside has a deceptively child-like quality, as though it were created by a talented youngster who exults in coloring outside the lines.

Author Neil Gaiman, famous for creating the landmark Sandman graphic novels for DC Comics, invests his story with a sensibility that is both mature and delightfully childlike. He understands how adults think the world should work. And he knows that children believe they have a more reasonable perspective.

Events unfold in a way that is unique but also familiar to anyone who knows the story arcs of the popular "If you give a mouse a cookie . . ." series. One thing leads to another that leads in turn to something bigger. Also like the mouse/cookie tales, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish leaves open the chance for a sequel. The boy finds a loophole in the limits his parents impose.

If Gaiman does write a sequel, being able to read it would be worth a goldfish or two. Maybe even worth a dad.