THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH

I just read this children's book, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.  They are a familiar duo in America by now, but this one is, to my knowledge, the only book they have produced so far that is about US.  (HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN 978-0060587017.)

The book -- intended for children, and I can heartily recommend it for OUR children as well as those of the Homo saps -- is about a kid who swaps his dad for two Goldfish operatives named SAWNEY and BEANEY (a very Neil Gaiman touch).  When sent back by mom to take the Goldfish to their opriginal owner and retrieve his dad, he learns that daddy-o has already been swapped to another kid for something else, and THE CHASE IS ON. 

CLIFFIE'S NOTES:

>> I fully approve of the author's correct use of the hypnotic drawing power of GOLDFISH.  It's a fully accurate reflection of WHY WE MAKE SURE THEY ARE OUT THERE EVERY DAY, FISHING FOR SHAVED MONKEYS. 

>> What I fail to understand is why kid after kid, in street after street of this neighborhood, wants to GIVE UP all these different kid-friendly items for, well, a HUMAN.    What's that about?

>> What I also fail to understand is why Nathan, the first neighbor kid and visibly the willing recruit of SAWNEY and BEANEY, would swap his recruiters away for ANYTHING ON DRY LAND.  He doesn't look like he has started to change into a fish himself yet, and thus is far from likely to even want those two orange-scaled lovelies out of his sight.  Taking them to a neighbor's to show off is ONE thing; leaving them there forever is QUITE ANOTHER.   I, personally, know that humans are really not capable of that level of self-sacrifice.

>> Even more puzzling is why dad goes along with this. 

>> And if HE goes along with it, why doesn't mom?

>> Could it be that SAWNEY and BEANEY planned it this way all along?