Absurd hilarity can be a wonderful change of pace from the humdrum of everyday life. Featuring comic-style illustrations and buckets of hair flying left, right and sideways, When Dad’s Hair Took Off fits that bill—and then some,

The premise?

One day, Dad’s hair decides to take a hike with nary a “Hairsta la vista, baby!”

Hilarity and a hatful (a hairful?) of puns, alliteration, and wordplay ensue as the benighted (but still bearded) father dashes after his AWOL hair, mistaking similar-looking items for his missing mop and always one step behind his clever clippings:

“As Dad stepped out the door, he thought he could see his hair in the garden, playing on the lawn. Right under his nose. Dad crept closer, like a stalking lion (without its mane.)”

Needless to say, the blades of grass on the lawn are not his missing hair.  He continues his quest and comes “within a whisker at the department store.”  Who knew chase scenes could be so much fun without crashing vehicles?

The anthropomorphic hair goes to the zoo, escapes down the drain, and flows to the sea. Periodically his “former crowning glory” sends the frustrated father postcards and selfies  from hairy spots around the world, including the “Sahaira Desert,” “Mount Hairverest,” and “Buenos Haires.”

A translational tour de force, When Dad’s Hair Took Off is targeted at early readers but will also work well read aloud to the younger set—and frankly, almost anyone with a sense of humor.

So does Dad get his hair back? That’s for readers to find out, if they can stop giggling long enough to turn to the last page of this funny, punny book.

When Dad’s Hair Took Off
Written by Jörg Mϋhle
Translated from the German by Melody Shaw
ISBN: 9781776575213
September 5, 2023, Gecko Press

Reviews: Kirkus

Read the first chapter.

You can buy a copy here* or find it at a library.

*Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 100 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the much-loved Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year (nominated for the 2023 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards and 2023 Harvey Awards) and Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War (2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, 2023 Mosaic Prize winner, 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist and 2023 Harvey Award nomination). Accolades have also gone to her translations of Magical History Tour: Vikings and of Magical History Tour: Gandhi (both 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists), Luisa: Now and Then (2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2019) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Award; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018).