Hey, Dad!

A children's book written by award winning author Brian Doyle. Hey, Dad! is a mainstay of Canadian elementary school classrooms, and although most kids have never actually read it, it enjoys massive popularity and notoriety due to the fact that the word "shit" can be found on page 48 (if memory serves... it's been a while since I was a fourth grader). The cover was orange and pink and had a picture of a car on it.

Originally published in 1978 and then reprinted in 1996, Hey Dad! is a story about a family who goes on a summer road trip, and was apparently sourced from real diary entries made by Doyle and his daughter Megan. Despite its undeniable popularity and timely fecal references, the book has been challenged by a number of elementary school principals. In one such case, a principal returned a crate of copies of the novel to the publisher, saying the book "promoted negative views and did not contain the values of positive citizenship".

Brian Doyle was raised just outside of Ottawa, Canada, and is considered one of Canada's premiere children's writers. Hey, Dad! was his first book. Doyle actually hadn't written Hey, Dad! for publication, but rather for his daughter Megan, with the hope that she would begin reading books. "I certainly didn't expect it to be published," he admits in an interview. Likewise, his second book You Can Pick Me Up At Peggy's Cove, was written for his son Ryan.

Doyle is currently retired after having taught English at various Ottawa-area high schools for over 30 years. His work has been nominated for numerous awards, most notably CLA honors (which he won twice in the Children's Book of the Year category) and Governor General's Awards (for which he has recieved three separate nominations).