Father Knows Less: One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son's Most Baffling Questions

By Wendell Jamieson

Book Overview

Kids ask the darndest questions--and the answers make for a "funny and fascinating"( Publishers Weekly ) book. Wendell Jamieson's son, Dean, has always had a penchant for asking odd questions. "Dad, what would hurt more--getting run over by a car, or getting stung by a jellyfish?" "Dad, why do policemen like donuts?" "Dad, does Mona Lisa wear shoes?" Because Dad is a newspaperman and city editor for The New York Times , he decided to seek out the real answers to Dean's questions from top experts--movie directors and ship captains, brain surgeons and stabbing victims, a Buddhist monk and a bra fitter, and even Yoko Ono. Their father-son journey for answers to the tough--and weird--questions of life is a sometimes surprising, often hilarious, and always fascinating celebration of the value and beauty of childlike curiosity. Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039953458X
• ISBN13: 9780399534584
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Questions

I bought this for my husband...plus I wanted to read it also! Great for anyone who has a child that likes to ask many questions. My husband has enjoyed reading this...I am looking forward to reading it myself.

Amazing insight from these little kids.

This book is a lot of fun and interesting information presented in a very clever fashion. The expert replies are well written, clear and concise. But the most incredible part of the book are the questions. I am amazed at the insight from these little kids. Overall, a great read.

A Great Memoir

While the questions in Jamieson's book are definitely fun, enlightining, and clever, it's the personal essays preceding each set of questions that really make this book enjoyable to read. Jamieson crafts a beautifully written, funny, smart, memoir of his own journey of re-discovering - and explaining - his childhood self through his journey as a father. In his search to find the answers to his son's questions, he also goes on a quest back into his own childhood, and the wonderment of that world. When you read the essays through like a memoir, you find gently recurring themes such as his relationship with his father, September 11, growing up in New York, and of course, parenthood shared with his wife. Each theme becomes its own character in the book - growing and changing alongside Jamieson. I read the essays first, and now I am going back to all the questions and answers, which take on a different meaning now that I know more about Jamieson's life and why finding these answers were so important. The book is less for kids, and more for those who like a well-written, entertaining, engaging, memoir that seeks to find answers on so many different levels.

Delightful insights into our world

The beauty of this book is that all the questions come from children who have yet to take things for granted. As adults, I believe that most of us simply come to understand the world with a cool acceptance and think no more upon the matter. The questions are ingenius thoughts from inquisitive minds and it is fascinating to read the answers. One of my particular favorites are "Why are people ticklish, and why sometimes are they not ticklish?" The answer was a total surprise and a delightful insight in our human bodies. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading interesting but commonly unknown facts. This is a light read and can be read casually.

Enjoyable, informative and bizzare ;->

This is a really clever book. Wendell Jamieson wrote this book because his son Dean asked him questions all the time that he couldn't answer. Was was stumped all the time. Out of his own curiosity, he started researching these questions and here are the results. Now these questions aren't all your typical questions we adults might ask each other; - it's definately the stuff of a childs mind. For example, one question is Why is the road always wet in car commercials (I never would have thought of that myself)? Wendell went to the experts for this and found out that because the car is the star of the commercial, you have to make it look as good as possible and on a dry road (which is a flat grey color) the car won't appear as good as a wet road which appears black. All the colors of the cars pop. Wendell makes sure that the answers are simple enough for kids to understand and learn from. Working in pharmacy, I really love the question about why doctors have messy handwritting. That's hillarious. (answer; because doctors are impatient, and would rather spend their time with the patient helping them, then writting scripts). This is such an enjoyable book for almost anyone (although it's definately geared for kids). There are so many things you would never have thought to ask in here, but after reading this, I found that I don't think I could have answered even half of these questions correctly at all. A very fun read.