https://bookishdad.com Honest children's book reviews from a millennial dad in the Pacific Northwest. en-us Sat, 25 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT https://bookishdad.com/og-image.png https://bookishdad.com https://bookishdad.com/reviews/magic-tree-house-1-dinosaurs-before-dark-mary-pope-osborne/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/magic-tree-house-1-dinosaurs-before-dark-mary-pope-osborne/ Sat, 25 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Early Reader My daughter read this book in January. By March she had consumed seventeen more Magic Tree House books and was asking me to estimate how many days until her birthday so she could request the rest of the series. I am not exaggerating. She... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-giving-tree-shel-silverstein/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-giving-tree-shel-silverstein/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Picture Book I read this book as a kid and thought it was about a nice tree. I read it to my daughter last week and had to stop on page seventeen because I couldn't see the words anymore. She asked why I was making weird breathing sounds. I told her ... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/frog-and-toad-are-friends-arnold-lobel/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/frog-and-toad-are-friends-arnold-lobel/ Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Early Reader I was standing in the kitchen last Tuesday making coffee when my daughter walked in holding this book and said, "Toad is having a hard time and Frog is helping him." She's eight. She wasn't asking me to read it. She was just telling me w... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-eric-carle/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-eric-carle/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Board Book My son has requested this book every single night for three months. Not occasionally. Not in rotation with other favorites. Every. Single. Night. He knows it by heart. He corrects me if I try to improvise. He gets angry if I turn the pag... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/where-the-wild-things-are-maurice-sendak/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/where-the-wild-things-are-maurice-sendak/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Picture Book My son threw a book at the cat last Tuesday. Not at the cat, really — near the cat, in the cat's general direction, because he was mad about something I've already forgotten. Probably screen time. Maybe a banana that broke wrong. He's fo... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-bfg-roald-dahl/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/the-bfg-roald-dahl/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Chapter Book My daughter asked me last Tuesday why the BFG talks funny. Not "incorrectly" or "strangely" — funny. And I realized I'd never actually thought about it before, even though I read this book myself in third grade and have now read it aloud... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/charlottes-web-eb-white/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/charlottes-web-eb-white/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Chapter Book I finished reading the final chapter of Charlotte's Web to my daughter last Thursday night and had to pretend I had something in my eye. She looked at me — completely dry-eyed, mildly concerned that I was having some kind of medical epis... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/elephant-and-piggie-we-are-in-a-book/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/elephant-and-piggie-we-are-in-a-book/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Picture Book Let me tell you about my relationship with Mo Willems. I did not grow up with Mo Willems. Mo Willems published his first Pigeon book in 2003, when I was in college and had bigger problems. I came to him entirely through my children, whic... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/goodnight-moon/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/goodnight-moon/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Board Book I want to be clear that I do not dislike Goodnight Moon. Three stars is not a bad score. Three stars means: I respect what this book is, I understand its cultural importance, and I also have some questions that haunt me at 11pm when I sh... https://bookishdad.com/reviews/matilda-roald-dahl/ https://bookishdad.com/reviews/matilda-roald-dahl/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Chapter Book I want to tell you something about 1991. I was seven years old, my mom handed me a paperback with a little girl on the cover, and I disappeared for a weekend. Not in the metaphorical sense where adults say "she was really engaged." I mea...