How to Train Your Dad — Content Guide for Parents
Found in this book
- ViolenceBrief
- Race & cultureBrief
- ProfanityBrief
Not found
- Scary content
- Religion
- Climate
- Sexual content
- Gender roles
- Gender & orientation
Content themes
Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.
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Summaries and source quotes for every theme.
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Religion
PRESENTContains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.
About this book
From the legendary author of Hatchet, a laugh-out-loud misadventure about a boy, his free-thinking dad, and the puppy-training pamphlet that turns their summer upside down.
Twelve-year-old Carl is fed up with his father's single-minded pursuit of an off-the-grid existence. His dad may be brilliant, but dumpster-diving for food, scouring through trash for salvageable junk, and wearing clothes fully sourced from garage sales is getting old. Increasingly worried about what schoolmates and a certain girl at his new school might think of his circumstances—and encouraged by his off-kilter best friend—Carl adopts the principles set forth in a randomly discovered puppy-training pamphlet to “retrain” his dad’s mindset . . . a crackpot experiment that produces some very unintentional results.
This is a fierce and funny novel about family, green-living, and untangling some of the ties that bind from middle-grade master Gary Paulsen.
Frequently asked questions
Is How to Train Your Dad appropriate for a 7-year-old?
The family's pit bull, rescued from dog fighting, tears skunks apart and threatens people, and there are comic mishaps with a bike and a hang glider, with no one attacking another person. A Junior Library Guild content tag lists racial insensitivity or racism for this book, though the sources do not describe the scene.
Does How to Train Your Dad have violence?
Found (Brief): The family's pit bull, rescued from dog fighting, tears skunks apart and threatens people, and there are comic mishaps with a bike and a hang glider, with no one attacking another person.
Does How to Train Your Dad have scary content?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does How to Train Your Dad have religion?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does How to Train Your Dad have race & culture?
Found (Brief): A Junior Library Guild content tag lists racial insensitivity or racism for this book, though the sources do not describe the scene.
Does How to Train Your Dad have profanity?
Found (Brief): One reviewer counts a single use of "damn", and a parent reader recalls a little foul language.
Does How to Train Your Dad have climate?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does How to Train Your Dad have sexual content?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does How to Train Your Dad have gender roles?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does How to Train Your Dad have gender & orientation?
Not found in the sources we checked.
