Sign-In
Cart
How to Cremate a Parakeet: And Other Tales of an Adventurous Childhood
Paperback
Biographies GeneralHumorGeneral Parenting
ISBN13: 9781968919580
Publisher: Armin Lear Press
Published: Sep 28 2026
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.67
Height: 0.51 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A love letter to mischief - and a case for letting kids get away with a little more of it.
Equal parts hilarious and quietly tender, Christopher Byrne's tales are a joyful reminder of what unsupervised hours and a little risk can give a kid - room to invent, to fail, to figure things out- no adult required, no permission asked.
This was life as the children of benign neglect knew it: unsupervised, occasionally hazardous, and gloriously theirs. From an exile to summer camp, to theological debates over blessing a turtle's grave, these true stories reflect the world kids lived in-and from their perspective.
Long before free-range kids needed a name, Byrne and his friends filled their world with fun they created, solved moral issues on their own terms, and overcame personal challenges to become more fully themselves.
Christopher Byrne is an author and toy expert known as The Toy Guy(R). He has written many books on toys and toy history. A graduate of Boston University's College of Fine Arts, he is also a theater critic and biographer. He lives and plays in New York City where he is still more likely to ask for forgiveness than permission.
An elegy - and a plea - for the kind of time and freedom that made childhood so intense, so goofy, so worth living. This book captures the Kid Mindset the schemes, the stupid plans, when you could refashion the world seven times in an afternoon.
-Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids and co-founder of Let Grow.
With the wealth of parenting how-to books flooding the market, one might believe there is little room for another. Enter How to Cremate a Parakeet: And Other Tales of an Adventurous Childhood, a hilarious blend of memoir and parenting guide that tackles topics other books won't touch.
-D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Also from
Byrne, Christopher
A Profile of the United States Toy Industry, Second Edition: Serious Fun
Byrne, Christopher
Paperback
Key Topics in Clinical Neuropsychology: From Science to Practice
Da Silva Ramos, Sara
Byrne, Christopher
Coetzer, Rudi
Paperback
Disjunctive Prime Ministerial Leadership in British Politics: From Baldwin to Brexit
Byrne, Christopher
Randall, Nick
Theakston, Kevin
Hardcover
Key Topics in Clinical Neuropsychology: From Science to Practice
Byrne, Christopher
Coetzer, Rudi
Da Silva Ramos, Sara
Hardcover
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover