The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

Following the success of The Wolves in the Walls, Bloomsbury have enterprisingly resurrected a Gaiman and McKean title from seven years ago that enjoyed less attention. This surreal cumulative tale is certainly worth a second look. Nathan and his sister, through a chain of slightly less bizarre exchanges, track down and reclaim the unfortunate, but largely oblivious, father who was swapped for the goldfish in the first place. Gaiman’s humour is bizarre and slyly perceptive, particularly in the exchanges between brother and sister. McKean provides a bravura feat of illustration with pictures that are richly coloured and textured, offer constantly changing angles on the action, and are sometimes layered within one another. I remember the book being met by incomprehension among most of the children’s librarians I knew when it first appeared, apart from one perceptive champion (stand up David Wright). It was a book ahead of its time that will be more appreciated in the light of The Wolves in the Walls. However, it is not hard to see why it didn’t have the same impact. The general effect is too much of a good thing. The story is longer and, at times, rather cleverer than it needs to be. The illustrations are restlessly innovative and the text is in a spidery long hand that jumps up and down the page, in and out of speech bubbles, and, once or twice, almost disappears against the illustration. The shape of the story is obscured, rather than enhanced, by the fireworks of its presentation.