ANIMAL CROSSINGS

Byron Walden is a math and computer science professor at Santa Clara University. Harrison is his 8-year-old son who, with occasional assistance, has been doing crosswords for more than a year.

The jokes in this puzzle's theme are a collaboration between the two. Byron spearheaded the fill — although the top right and lower left corners are completely Harrison's. The two wrote the clues together. (Happy Father's Day!)

HARRISON: I am 8 years old and a rising third grader. I like fill-ins, frameworks, brain teasers, trivia and other puzzles. I also like creative writing, drawing, trivia, travel (14 countries, 17 states and counting), reading (mostly about history and true crime), cooking, riding my bicycle and playing with my dogs. I have been solving and constructing puzzles since I was 4.

BYRON: I tell a lot of dad jokes. A while back, sparked by a suggestion from my wife Robin, we started thinking of ways to build a dad joke theme. Harrison and I would note some decent ones here and there without too many letters, but it took a long time to hit on some unifying ideas. Having run across several "crossing" jokes, the idea of crossing the components in the grid just clicked. The first two jokes were modifications of ones from Harrison's jokebooks. The latter two we wrote ourselves to make the symmetry work.

We collaborated throughout the process. Most of the longer entries were Harrison's choices. Once we had finished all but the two isolated corners, I told him he should try to finish them off on his own. He used CrossFire with a basic word list for suggestions, but he added one word at a time, without autofill. He'd ask things like "Is HASSAN okay?" for words he didn't know, but managed to finish up in pretty short order. We did the cluing together. Thursday will mark my 10th wedding anniversary and thus the 10th anniversary of the wedding day puzzle Robin and I constructed. So now it feels like we've come full circle. Hope you all enjoy the puzzle and the day.

What, you don't know the blockbuster hit game, "Animal Crossing"? It's a silly little thing where you breed rare hybrids, dipping into animal-human crimes against nature that turn dangerous and then try to eat you … I might be thinking of something else.

I'm not much into animal mobile games, but I might play "Doctor Moreau Crossing."

It's fantastic to see a new generation of crossword creators, Byron mentoring his son through the process. I thought it was crazy when 13-year old David Steinberg's baby-faced pic debuted a decade ago. But an eight-year old?

What the …?

It makes my daughter, Tess, seem over the hill at age five. But you better watch out, Harrison, because my son Jake still has five years to catch you!

I'm not sure which kid will take over the Chen family business. One thing's for sure, though — we'll be sure to stick with a normal-ish word count. I like how Byron beat back his usual obsession with ultra-low-word-count grids, allowing Harrison a gentle entry into the pool. Breaking up a grid into doable chunks is the perfect way to get a new constructor into the fold, and those SW and NE corners Harrison did are perfect bite-sized chunks.

I do wonder if Harrison is giving his dad the side-eye, saying WTF (what the frick, of course) is a BIDDY? NOMEN? An ADZ, much less ADZING? Tess/Jake and I might start with something much more within reach of an 8-year old, like a 78-word Tuesday grid.

The theme … the jokes weren't up my alley, but what do you get when you cross 26-Across (ELEPHANT) with 40-Across (RHINO)?

Elephino.