Dads on Books

How do we start the last episode of our first season? With our first RL Stein book: Goosebumps: Monster Blood ! Is it the first or the third or the 30th of the Goosebumps series? Mike tells us, David doesn’t listen and tries to figure it out, and then David figures it out! Speaking of first or third, in this last episode of season one, there are many firsts! First R. L. "Jovial Bob" Stine Book. Fi...

Mike and David have a wonderful conversation with author Linda Harkey award winning writer of many wonderful books from Story Monsters . The Dads talk about her latest book, The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy , a wonderful mystery that might get you a little misty-eyed. Just a little. Like pack rat size. No, smaller. It’s a fun tale of VFDs—What’s a VFD you may ask? You’ll have to listen to find....

Mike and David sure love stinky books and books with slime mold, so Stink and the Attack of the Slime Mold by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds is the most logical choice for their next book. And not to reveal too much, they both really really really really liked this one! In the story, a boy named Stink decides to feed and grow his science experiment mold at home. What could possib...

In another Back to the Basics (and Board Books)  or BB(BB) episode, Mike and David dish on one of David's favorites, Each Peach Pear Plum. Mike's opinion?  "It's one of David's favorites." Why did David like it so much? Is it the nursery rhyme characters or lots of neat "I spy" details that David certainly noticed when he read it to his girls? Or is it, that it's illustrated in his favorite art me...

zAnd now part two of our talk with Alan Katz , author, poet, father, and really awesome guy. There's more jokes and what if we talked a poem called, "What If" and fun stories about about legal name changes and identity confusion with other writer. (Don't worry, no one got hurt) Alan shares more of his writing rules inlcuding (but not limited to) "Everything you do, any job you pick, is going to in...

Thanks for indulging our April Fool's Day episode. Now back to the real stuff with the real Alan Katz , author of 1 or 2 or 52 books, and, to quote Alan, "twelve of them are good." We disagree. The other 40 R2. There's lots of jokes, especially, "What does this doodad do, Dad?"—the ultimate dad joke!!—lots of laughing, but—SPOILER ALERT!!—some deep stuff too. Alan shares some of his writing rules...

WHOLEY COW, BATMAN!  THIS COW SMELLS LIKE... Fill in the blank for a chance to be live with Clean Slate Dave.... & Mike. Ut oh... Spagetios???OMG]] OMG.. is this for realsies???? Wheut?

We are fresh off a St. Patrick's Day Eve recording of The Day the Crayons Quit in our first episode where Mike and David are in the same continent in the same state in the same city in the same house in the same room in the same chair—Okay, wait. That's a little weird. There were two chairs and two Dads, but one room. And many, many, many...many crayons. (And some more crayons.) And definitely che...

This episode has it all! Stripes: the two dads read about them, they talk about them, David even wears them. There are specialists, experts, the carnival outside Camilla's house replete with news, people, hotdog, vendors, and other shenanigans, chicanery, tomfoolery and silly high jinks. Warning: there is some darkness, and a touch of "the scary," but the story is so much fun and the art is beauti...

We had so much fun with Chris Grabenstein , we had to split it in to two parts! Chris regales us with tales from his book The Crossroads , and how he can tell a story in 35 words. He talks about his “yes and life“ and how he deals with the “mad magazine voice" in his head“ that led him to a career in radio where he got to be wacky and crazy and learned from his good friend Jim Patterson to "throw...

DoB welcomes our third author and first non-daughter, non-Dan guest! None other than the perfectly paraphrasing prosaist of Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest multiple award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein . We get to the bottom of the meaning and pronunciation of his name (nom de plume); how he writes; and how his writing was influenced by his experience in improv (...

Mike and David are moved by the inspiring story of Ruby Bridges, a six year old, black girl who was integrated into New Orleans public schools in 1960. After David learned of her story through Fr. Mike’s (no relation) homily at his girls’ Catholic school, they decided to pick not one, but two books about Ruby Bridges to read and talk about:  The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and  Through M...

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 o...

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 love...

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...

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...

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...

Mike and David struggle with the calendar but successfully locate Danny and the Dinosaur in David’s attic, aka Narnia. This "50sy" classic features a dinosaur that fluctuates from "row-house sized" to "lamp-post thin". The Dads explore the Syd Hoff-ance—the 27-year gap between sequels—and David’s 2055 "heaven" debut.  They close with "killer" jokes about —nope, note telling and still not telling. ...

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 bu...

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...

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...

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...

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 ballo...

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 firs...

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 discov...