THE DADDY STORE

A flier from the Daddy Store starts a young boy to thinking about his dad’s flaws.

His dad doesn’t notice his aquatic feats at the pool and thinks the fair’s expensive, so the boy pulls his sad-looking and obviously reluctant dad by the hand to the Daddy Store for a trade. But the three different dads he tries out aren’t much better. One is a cheerleader parent, another is too competitive, and a third, a movie star, takes the boy to the fair but gives him money instead of his time. The boy returns to the Daddy Store just in time to prevent two other children from walking away with his original father, and the two, both white, return home: “You are the best dad in the world!” Never addressed is the inattention that originally prompted the trade. While the sign behind the counter prompts shoppers to “Choose your color,” “Choose your type” (seemingly amount of muscle/weight), and “Choose your size” (height), of the three dads on display, two are white, and one might be Latino (though on the endpapers and in one internal illustration, eight more dads are pictured: five white, one possibly East Asian, and two dark-skinned—one in a wheelchair and one very pudgy one who is labeled “Makes delicious pancakes”). The illustrations, which appear to be digital, just echo the text, and most of the featured women are troublingly sexualized.

Visit the library or bookstore for a new read instead.