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CAPTAIN DAD: The Manly Art of Stay-at-Home Parenting

It all began as a blog, Captain Dad dot com. Then the New York Times crowed, “That Mr. Byrnes is pointedly droll is no surprise. He is a contributing cartoonist to The New Yorker... with a voice that is part Dave Barry, part Erma Bombeck and all Pat Byrnes, illustrator, cartoonist and social commentator.”

That led to the book, which the very same Dave Barry called "very funny." Do I really need to say more?

It is my account of staying home to raise children because I was man enough to do it. Or fool enough. You be the judge.

Lots of funny stories, helpful tips, ponderings, commiserations, and cartoons. Plus chapters that are short enough for even a parent to have time to read. Great for anyone you know who has kids. Especially all the time!

Eats, Shoots & Leaves — Illustrated Edition
by Lynne Truss

You may have a copy of this bestseller from a couple years ago, but it is so much better with pictures, don't you think?

But don't take my word for it. Take Entertainment Weekly's Holiday Gift Guide's word for it.

What Would Satan Do? Cartoons about right, wrong, and very, very wrong

This book contains many of my cartoons from The New Yorker, America Magazine and others, plus a bunch found nowhere else. It came out in October of 2005, but it's still available at a lot of bookstores and certainly at amazon.com, where it has a 5-star rating — and not just out of one or two reviews either.

People Magazine put it on their "Hot List" when it came out, but Entertainment Weekly outdid them with the puns by calling it "Hell-arious."


Because I'm the Child Here and I Said So

This makes the perfect baby shower gift, since it's all about parenting. Again, a lot of the cartoons are from The New Yorker, Reader's Digest and America, but a lot are just for the book.

WI used it as a guide book for my own daily adventures in parenting. If caught myself doing anything that reminded me of the cartoons, I stopped doing that!

Another five-star rating at amazon.com, but fewer reviews, so I can't rightly tout it as much.


The Rejection Collection &
The Rejection Collection II—Cream of the Crap
— edited by Matt Diffee

I'm one of 30 contributing cartoonists to this one. You get a behind-the-scenes look at New Yorker cartoonists and see some of their funniest cartoons that never made it in The New Yorker. (It's typically pretty easy to tell why The New Yorker passed on them, no matter how funny; so you may want to read it before you let your kids see it.)


Dave Barry on Dads — by Dave Barry

I drew the pictures. Dave Barry wrote the words. He's a pretty funny guy. If he sticks with this writing thing, he could have a big future.

A great gift for your dad's birthday or anyone embarking upon fatherhood.

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MORE? I am also a contributor to numerous anthologies from The New Yorker and Reader's Digest and innumerable other books, because of The New Yorker reprints. I had to make a tally a year ago of the reprints from psychology textbooks alone. It was more than 100.