Yesterday I described a book that is brilliant for its simplicity.

This one is wonderful for its complexity.

And yet the emotions are simple. A kid has an opportunity to swap something useless (his dad, who does nothing but sit around, reading the newspaper – useless!) for something cool (two goldfish). When mom gets home, his bratty sister rats him out and his quest begins.

Accompanied by his sister – as her punishment (“Fancy,” their mum says, “allowing your brother to swap your father for two goldfish and a bowl. The very idea.”) – the boy sets out for what should be an easy backsie. Except that his friend has traded the dad to another friend for an electric guitar. And that friend has traded the dad to yet another friend for a gorilla mask. And that other friend has traded the dad for…

And the house that jack built fun continues.

The absurdity of the situation (fancy, trading your dad for two goldfish. and a bowl), along with the spirit of all the kids trading the dad because he’s no fun he just sits around reading the paper – something many of us remember about dads: sometimes they are just no fun. Although you can’t imagine Neil Gaiman’s kids saying that; I suspect life with Gaiman as a dad would be a wacko fun ride into absurdity with mom hopefully providing ballast against the worst extremes…

Where was I? Oh yes, of course, the book.

I love all the swaps, the interplay between the boy and his sister, the characters they run into along the way – who is the Queen of Melanesia, anyway? – and the crazy situations they find themselves in.

McKean’s illustrations perfectly suit the story, with hand-lettered text that changes in size and style to reflect who is speaking, and an awkward, color-washed twilight world, that gets bigger and smaller unpredictably, perfectly captures the childrens’ perspective.

This book reminds me of another story, a story by Ionesco – yes, that Ionesco – about a little girl who wakes up her hungover parents waaaay too early in the morning. To get rid of her, her father tells her a story about another little girl, a girl named Jacqueline. Jacqueline’s parents are also named Jacqueline, as are her sisters and brothers and everything else in Jacqueline’s world. The father’s tale doesn’t go anywhere – I imagine him mumbling it out of the corner of his mouth as he falls back asleep – and the little girl is removed by the housekeeper, who takes her along as she does the day’s shopping. In a shop, she meets a little girl her age. She asks the little girl what her name is and the little girl replies, “Jacqueline.”

Not to give away the ending of Gaiman’s book but, as you probably guess, the kids manage to retrieve their father (“Just look at the state of him!” mum says, sending dad off for a bath), and the balance of the world is restored.

For the moment.

What’s your favorite absurdist children’s book?