Washington ? John Roberts sounds like a fun dad. Every Saturday morning, he makes bacon and waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse for his wife, Jane, and two children Jack and Josie. If the kids don’t act up during Sunday Mass, he lets them play soccer afterward without changing out of their church clothes. One Thanksgiving, he helped Jack with a class assignment, dressing up a paper turkey as a pirate.

Apparently, not even the chief justice of the United States has the power to question the preschool curriculum, no matter how wacky the teacher’s ideas.

These and other little-known facts of Roberts’s home life appear in a new kid-friendly biography, “John G. Roberts, Jr.: Chief Justice,” by Lisa Tucker McElroy.

It has just gone on sale at the Supreme Court gift shop. Pitched at about a sixth-grade reading level, the 48-page hardcover book filled with family photos is part of a Lerner Publishing Group series.

The book is remarkably candid about events in Roberts’ adult life that an earlier generation of public official might have kept strictly private.

For example, it contains a frank and touching account of the adoption of John and Jane Roberts’ two children. “As is often the case, the adoption process turned out to be long and difficult,” the book explains. “Even though the Roberts qualified early on to adopt a child, there were several disappointments. A few years passed. … Finally, in the summer of 2000, they received good news from their adoption agency. A birth mother had chosen them to adopt her baby.” That was Josie. Then, to their surprise, a second adoption agency called to tell them Jack could be theirs. They adopted two children born just four months apart.

“Josie and Jack know that they are adopted, and they identify with other adopted children,” the book notes. “They even read picture books about adoption.”

The book is based on interviews with Roberts and his family from last November.