Dadventure

Dad blogs are becoming the place for publishers to promote the new wave of Dad books that seem to be cropping up these days like spring tulips. I’m not complaining, send em on in (and any other free stuff you product promoters happen to have lying around). I only wish I had the time to actually read this stuff.

I, like Daddy Forever, am the proud owner of a new promo copy of Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life by Jim Lindberg of Pennywise. Really, when you are a punk and have lived the full punk life, what could be more punk to your circle of conformity rejecting anarchist friends than, uh, settling down and having kids.

Also sent to me recently is Fat, Forty, Fired, a book that has been nicely reviewed by Ben Murphy at The Father Life (who also did an interview with the author Nigel Marsh).

To round out the trilogy of promo books is the unfortunately titled The Dangerous Book for Boys. This is a very interesting book that, as a young lad, would have kept me occupied for hours with it’s how to instructions on creating invisible ink, knot tying, and building a tree house.

However, I have a real beef with book (here’s were the unfortunate title part comes in). As the father of a daughter, I can’t help but feel defensive that this book is so obvious in it’s “boys only” stance. I realize that book publishers have to come up with a catchy title to engage their target audience immediately, but girls can’t build tree forts, tie knots and delve into the finer points of baseball trivia?

Mind you, the subject matter of the book hearkens back to a bygone era when young scalawags whiled away a lazy afternoon building rafts and floating down the ol’ Mississip’ while using their secret decoder rings to decipher Navajo code, so it shouldn’t surprise me that the sign on this fort clearly says “No Girls Allowed!”

While we are on the subject of books, my good friend Paul Abra at the Island Parent blog has recommended a couple of fine books for parents dealing with teens. If you are a parent of a teen and navigating the murky waters of risky behaviour, check out his recommendations.

Related posts:

1. 7 Anti-princess Princess Books I am not sure if The Girl is outgrowing her princess phase, but it certainly hasn’t been the focus of...
2. Um, what did you say? Our bedtime routine had an unexpected hiccup last night when, for the first time, a consequence was met with a...
3. 10 Ways Dads Can Encourage Daughters to Participate in Sports The excellent Dads and Daughters newsletter this week came with a great top 10 list on how to encourage girls...