The day we blew up the cat: And other stories from a normal childhood (The Dad Story Project Book 1)

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“Tell me a story.”

It’s one of humanity’s universal requests. And it makes perfect sense since each of our lives is simply a string of days earmarked by the circling sun and regular eight-hour naps—we each live just one long story.

This is a book of stories: fifteen heartwarming essays that are sure to make you smile and laugh, and maybe even shed a tear or two. It’s a celebration of the notions that fatherhood and childhood are meant to be tightly stitched together, that a dad and his children really grow up together, and that wonder will be found everywhere if we just keep our eyes and hearts open. These are simple, peaceful, introspective stories that quietly proclaim the idea that growing up can be incredible and that amazement and inspiration can always be found in the simple elements of Everyday.

The stories have been selected from among more than 200 that the author, Peter Lewis, originally published in his column, Views from the Uppermost House, in his hometown newspaper in rural Maine. The column won top journalism awards in Maine every year from 2006 to 2013, and is still going strong—Lewis is a grandfather now, so there is no end to the raw material for his storytelling.

In the hands of Lewis, life’s seemingly ordinary things: mowing the lawn, painting a bedroom ceiling, turning around a boat trailer, sitting on a rock in the woods, standing in the middle of the road, take on a startling significance and somehow become beautifully poignant. It’s as if he really believes that everything that happens in every day can somehow be turned into wonderful.

The book’s central focus is on the family, and most specifically on the relationships that a father has with his children. This is a book that will challenge fathers to see their role as not one of mere biology, not a burden to be borne grudgingly for 18 years and then discarded, but rather the greatest job they will ever have: a joyous calling that just keeps on going and earns dividends that are ultimately not tallied on any earthly balance sheets.

Lewis does what the best storytellers do: he shows rather than tells. These are vivid stories that you can see and hear and touch, and in each of them you may well find yourself thinking, “Yup, that could be me.” Not always the perfect dad himself, Lewis is nonetheless able to show us that teachable moments go both ways and that great good can often be wrought from unlikely circumstances. As he once wrote:

“For fifty-five years I've awakened each day as a son. And each morning for the last eleven thousand days I've climbed out from under the covers and stepped into the shoes of a father; shoes I’m not always certain I can fill. The role of son I was born to, the role of father I was called to; yet I haven’t always played either role well. I’ve often fumbled my lines, on some days I’ve forgotten them altogether, and then there are those weary times when I fear I’ve left the entire script in a bus station in Cleveland.”

And while the title and the cover design might suggest silliness , this is a serious book about a serious subject: being the best dad you can be. Planned as the first of a six-volume series, Lewis’s book headlining an exploding cat is also a call to action. A simple call perhaps best summed up by the last line in the first essay about a man driving through a sleet storm to offer moral support to his son far away at college: “Sometimes being a dad means just showing up.