Book Review: Awkward Family Pet Photos

As advertised, Awkward Family Pet Photos is filled with awkward family pet photos. Book delivers.

Photo by Erin Koski

It probably says something about me that I failed to find the awkwardness in many of the pictures in this book. Sure, some of them are incredibly dated and positively reek of the 80's or 90's...and also happen to have an animal in them. For many of these, the pet is a minor detail. I think including pets in family photos says a lot about those pets and the way their family feels about them.

Other pictures...the possum elevates the redneck family portrait from "mundane" to "art". I'm pretty sure the addition of a possum or a skunk automatically makes any studio photo awkward.

I particularly love the historic pictures, they illustrate how pets have always been important to people.

I get a big kick out of this book, and I've been a fan of the Awkward Family Photos site since before blogs like that became mainstream. My mother is also a fan, and deemed the picture to the left to be awkward enough to send in. Apparently authors Mike Bender and Doug Chernack deemed it to be awkward enough, because you will find said photo in the collage at the back of the book.

No, I didn't get paid to have my picture in the book. I did have to sign a bit of paperwork allowing them to use it. It's from the summer of 2010 when I first dyed Ru pink, and was taken in a classroom at the elementary school where my mother teaches music. Hopefully this explains the row of presidential portraits at the very top.