Doogie Howser, MD is all grown up now, having finally gotten past the White Castle era, and now he’s writing children’s books. Or at least his ghost writer is writing them (someone named “Alec Azam”?). I have been vetting advanced chapter books for my 7YO, and this one is perfectly appropriate. The plot has a good dose of values (anti-bullying, acceptance of different types of people, thieving is wrong), plus it features a two-dad family. I do love it when children’s literature just normalizes same-sex parents rather than needlessly calling our attention to them. There are instructions for how to perform a few magic tricks interspersed among the chapters. There are also codes to crack, for the attentive reader. I can’t say I’ll read the sequel, but I’ll definitely recommend these books to my daughter.
