Dads on Books

Did you know that George Washington had fake teeth? We did, too. Did you know it was a problem his entire adult life? Neither did we. Did you know he didn’t have wooden teeth? Neither did we. Did you know that he led the Continental army to win the Revolutionary War? We did, too. Just seeing if you’re paying attention. Good job.

While this episode of Dads on Books is just as fun as all the other ones, we decided to celebrat...

In their very first Pete the Cat episode, Mike and David talk and talk and talk about being home alone—aaaaaaaarrrrg!!!—and snow and sleds and Ace the friendly hardware place and lightbulbs—the new college major and, one more thing... oh yeah! the book!!

Pete the Cat--Valentine's Day is Cool has a lot of meaningful memories for Mike and his girls and none whatsoever for David's, but they both loved the book. In a role rever...

Mike and David are such fans of the Dans, especially Dan Yaccarino author of Piccolo, they had to split their awesome, fun, super conversation in two—due!—episodes.

This time the Dads and the Dan talk about stories, books (The Luna Sisters) and of course, mid-century modern. Even though they post every Monday, they read and talked about Every Friday. They laughed, they cried, they promised not to pretend to cry. 

We finall...

Mike and David continue their celebration of Danuary with their second author guest Dan Yaccarino which means all of their guests are either daughters or Dans. They had so much fun, this is only part one!

Dan and the Dads talk about Dan's latest book, Piccolo and its celebration of Dan's Italian heritage and its themes of putting others before yourself and the importance of gelato. That's Italian for ice cream. They also di...

In our continuing celebration of "DANUARY!!!", Mike and David discuss Danny and Danny’s Doodles— which turn out to be not quite as doodly  or noodley as you might think— plus other fun stuff in a book, that’s oddly doodly, oodly, feudily, silly billy, and even a touch serious.

They’ve got everything! There’s mismatched  socks, a string diet where even the tuna is stringy, unevenly short pants, and sensible shoes (sensible b...

Mike and David have a rockin’ conversation about Sandra Boynton’s Going to Bed Book. WARNING: The animals do something CRAZY before going to bed!! You were warned. And they will they will rock you(r kids to sleep)!

Mike and David deal with grammactical (sic) errors, math is hard, and politics? (No). There's also an epiphany about a hippo—hippiphany?—about who—whom?!—is brushing their teeth. No buts about it, these animals ...

In our first ever year-end wrap up, Mike and David talk about a book they didn’t necessarily love, but then discovered that they loved a lot about it and then discovered in an epiphany kinda way that they DO like it as David did some inadvertent research. 

Mike and David's neologism du semaine: (new word of the week): Millustrations!

Speaking of which, it's a great book for encouraging young boys to read because there ar...

Lots of fun as the Dads talk about The Story of the Wooden Coin, our first Christmas book—well, the first Christmas book at Christmas time. David dances on rhythm whatever that means; Mike chose the Hanukkah book, so, naturally, since David is Catholic, Mike chooses the Christmas book—wait, what?! Also, it’s our second episode in a row to reference Lake Placid 1980. A season of Miracles. 

Warning! There might be some verkle...

In our first holiday episode—well, at least our first episode on a book about a holiday around the same time that the holiday that the book is about falls—anyway here’s our first book about Hanukkah: All about Hanukkah by Judyth Groner and Madeline Wikler, illustrated by Kinny Kreiswirth. 

Everything you wanted to know about Hanukkah and so much more! Among other things, David doesn't start at the beginning and eventually f...

Holy carp! this is our 30th episode

and at this moment we have 988 listens!!

Mike and David return to short books—board books even!—with Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann, and they are so excited about good and night being two words and the comma in the title!!

The Dads discuss the nods to Goodnight Moon including the ever-present mouse and the ever-present, or almost always ever-present balloon and other mysteries and co...

We get to part two of our conversation with My Weird School series (and many many other silly and some not silly books) Dan Gutman. Our surprise guest shows up. Will we find  Dr. Carbles? Or his marbles? Take a listen and find out.

Bonus stuff:  
Dan’s writing tips for young (and old) aspiring writers:

• Start with “what if?” and add imagination. What if Castro became an Astro?
• Get ‘em with the first sentence. 
• Regarding ...

Mike and David welcome their first non-daughter guest, Dan Gutman, the nutman, author of the My Weird(er and erestEST...) School Series(esEST?), and the recently released The Picasso Curse and OH SOOO many more.

Dan discusses his “What if” theory of writing (What if Castro became an Astro?, What if Picasso became an Queso) and denies VEHEMENTLY any involvement in the recent Louvre heist.

We discover that Dan Gutman is a Nu...

The "Dads on Books" welcomed Lucy Patrick, who selected a copy of the 1947 classic, Good Night Moon. Lucy chose her sticky shredded copy of the book mostly because the mouse is "really cute". The dads, with a lot of help from brilliant Lucy, calculate that it took the little bunny a wopping 70 minutes to finally fall asleep. They debated whether the pages stuck together from "peas and tea", discussed the controversial miss...

Another daughter, another series! David’s Sarah and Warrior Cats’s Into the Wild! by Erin “faux” Hunter. Mike reads the wrong book. Again. And is lost. David reads the right book. Again. And is lost. Sarah is not lost and finds the Dads. It’s a wild wonderful world of cat clans and hyphens and blood-beats. This epic tale is so huge that Sarah is currently devouring the 34th book, proving that cat drama truly is endless (an...

Mike and David return to totally toddler tomes—fewer words, no chapters, and more pictures with one of their favorite and fun authors award-garnering Mo Willems. We're talking about illustrious, illylu—pictures again. SPOILER ALERT—We love the art! So simple, yet so profound with an hint of/ notes of cranberry and sage. And David messes up his animals. Again. Where’s the pigeon?! On his head?
What's up duck?

Looking for...

In the third “Since we are Dads on Books, we have daughters, and they can be Guests!“ episode, Mike’s daughter Ruby joins us with one of her favorite books—it's teacher and school librarian approved!!—and our first graphic novel, El Deafo by CeCe Bell. We touch on a mashup of Little House and the Waltons, a German version of the muppets (DasMuppetz), Grease (🎼tell me more, tell me more! 🎶), and other 70s stuff. We also g...

This time there’s someone next to David—his daughter Delaney! Mike and David welcome their second guest. Ever. We delve into the wonderful world of Percy Jackson. WARNING: this book has no pictures!! And is long. Longer than our previous reads. And read the chapter titles first. Trust us. Trust her. From accidental teacher vaporization to taking a zebra to Vegas or a god buying us a cheeseburger, you won’t regret it. 🍔 An...

Mike and David talk about "Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus" by Barbara Park. Let's just say they're not on board with this one--a first! While there's some fun:  Mike likes that it's made of paper and when he learned that "a relief is when your stomach doesn't feel squeezy anymore." And David liked STEWED TOMATOES!! this one just isn't their can of tea.

Looking for an episode we touched on in this one? How about:<...