Dad's Bald Head (review)

Dad's got a healthy crop of hair just about everywhere on his body except his head, which features a disappointingly scraggly assemblage of sproingy leftovers. Still, Pete is more than a little freaked out when, during their morning ritual of slathering each other with shaving cream, Dad doesn't stop with his beard but shaves his entire head. Mom loves the new look immediately, but it isn't until Pete notices how silly various men in the neighborhood look as they try to compensate for their follicle challenges that he decides that a bald dad is better than a toupeed dad, or a combover dad, or even the mulleted, shaggy, hippie, short-back-and-sides dad of hairs past that his mom shows him from old picture albums. The vivid art features an arresting technique of brush and ink overlaid with digital coloring that makes the energetic compositions pop (though there's occasionally a disconcerting mistiness to the colorfield) even while they remain friendly and accessible. O'Malley's extreme (and kind of gross, in a comedic way) closeups of stark black hairs sticking out of cheeks, chins, and shins, and his droll visual jokes throughout the text, including the playful endpapers featuring outrageous 'dos, slyly set the stage for the superiority of the shiny pate. Young readers coming to terms with their own fathers' dubious grooming choices will appreciate both the humor and the sensitivity with which the topic is approached.