W Bruce Cameron Books in Order
Browse W Bruce Cameron books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and simple where-to-start picks for his dog novels, mysteries, and humor.
Last updated: July 2, 2026
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Publication Order
39 books
8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter
by W Bruce Cameron
2001
These comic essays turn one anxious father's rules, warnings, and bad-case scenarios into a fast, funny take on raising teenage girls. It is Cameron in full humor-column mode.
How to Remodel a Man
by W Bruce Cameron
2004
Cameron plays relationship expert for laughs, offering step-by-step advice on how to improve the men in your life. It is a broad, joke-packed riff on housework, tools, sports, and stubborn habits.
8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter
by W Bruce Cameron
2008
This sequel shifts from dating panic to wedding panic as one father stares down planners, bills, and ceremony chaos. It is sharp, affectionate satire about family, money, and letting go.
A Dog's Purpose
by W Bruce Cameron
2010
A dog is reborn again and again, each time asking what his life is meant to do. His search for meaning leads him back to one boy, one family, and the bond that shapes every life that follows.
Emory's Gift
by W Bruce Cameron
2011
Charlie Hall is grieving, lonely, and struggling to reconnect with his father when a strange encounter in the Idaho woods changes his life. Soon he is protecting a remarkable grizzly bear from people who mean harm.
A Dog's Journey
by W Bruce Cameron
2012
Buddy thinks he has finished his work, until he realizes young CJ will need a dog beside her. Across several lives, he keeps returning to guide her through loneliness, bad choices, and heartbreak.
A Dog for Christmas / The Dogs of Christmas
by W Bruce Cameron
2013
Josh wants a quiet Christmas alone, not a dumped pregnant dog and a house full of coming puppies. But dogs, a rescue worker named Kerri, and the holidays push him toward a very different kind of family.
The Midnight Dog of the Repo Man
by W Bruce Cameron
2014
This short Ruddy McCann story drops a repo man and his basset hound into another slice of northern Michigan trouble. It is a quick, funny setup for the odd mysteries that follow.
The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man
by W Bruce Cameron
2014
Ruddy McCann is a repo man, a bouncer, and a former football star whose life has clearly gone sideways. Then a dead man starts talking in his head, and a small-town mystery turns very strange.
Ellie's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2015
Ellie grows from a lively puppy into a focused search-and-rescue dog. As she trains with Jakob, she learns that being a good dog can mean following her nose straight into danger.
The Dog Master
by W Bruce Cameron
2015
Set more than 30,000 years ago, this novel imagines the first fragile partnership between humans and wolves. It is part survival story, part origin tale, and full of hard choices about trust, power, and change.
Bailey's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2016
Bailey is thrilled with his boy, Ethan, and the farm, family, and adventures that come with him. When tragedy knocks Ethan off course, Bailey becomes the steady friend who helps him find his way back.
Repo Madness
by W Bruce Cameron
2016
Ruddy McCann is still hearing the voice in his head, and that voice has ideas about murder. The result is a scruffy, funny mystery where car repossessions and crime solving keep colliding.
A Dad's Purpose
by W Bruce Cameron
2017
Cameron brings his dry humor to the slow realization that children eventually stop listening to Dad. It is a quick, comic look at fatherhood, authority, and the strange business of trying to stay relevant at home.
A Dog's Way Home
by W Bruce Cameron
2017
Bella is separated from Lucas and launches herself into a long journey back to him. Along the way she crosses mountains, meets strangers, and proves that home is something a dog can feel with her whole heart.
Molly's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2017
Molly knows that her purpose is to take care of her girl, C.J., but it will not be easy. Hidden from a troubled mother and always on guard, she protects C.J. through some of the hardest days of childhood.
Max's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2018
Tiny but fearless, Max decides it is his job to watch over C.J. in New York City. His story mixes city adventures with a sweet lesson about courage, loyalty, and learning when to be gentle.
Shelby's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2018
Shelby starts life as a hungry stray before a kind woman changes her future. Soon she is learning movie-set commands, winning over cast and crew, and discovering what it means to belong.
A Dog's Promise
by W Bruce Cameron
2019
Bailey's story continues when he and another devoted dog work across several lives to keep a promise that matters deeply to one family. It is tender, wistful, and built around the idea that dogs never really stop looking after us.
Lily's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2019
Lily is the smallest puppy in her litter, but that turns out to be a strength. After meeting Maggie Rose at the shelter, she discovers that helping other animals may be exactly what she was born to do.
Toby's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2019
Toby is a warmhearted dog whose greatest gift is being there when people need comfort most. This gentle Puppy Tale follows his early bond with humans and his growing sense that caring for them is his purpose.
A Dog's Perfect Christmas
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
As Christmas approaches, the Goss family is pulling apart under the strain of old problems and new crises. A lost puppy arrives at exactly the wrong, or possibly right, moment.
Bella's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
Bella loves Lucas, even if staying with him means hiding and obeying strange rules. When they are separated, she sets out across dangerous Colorado country to find her way home.
Dog Dog Goose
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
A flock of orphaned baby geese decide Lily is their mother, which would be easier if they did not also need to learn how to fly. Lily and Maggie Rose step in for a funny, surprisingly tender rescue.
Lily to the Rescue
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
Lily, once a stray herself, now helps animals in trouble. In this first adventure, she and Maggie Rose take in a crow with a broken wing and learn that rescuing can get messy fast.
The Not-So-Stinky Skunk
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
A camping trip goes sideways when Lily meets a skunk that cannot protect itself the usual way. She has to figure out how to help a very vulnerable little animal before something worse finds it first.
Two Little Piggles
by W Bruce Cameron
2020
At a rest stop, Lily and Maggie Rose find two lost piglets with no sign of their mother. Lily's nose and determination drive a warm, funny rescue mission.
A Dog's Courage
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
Bella has finally found peace with Lucas and Olivia when a massive wildfire tears them apart. Lost in the Rockies again, she must survive the flames and protect two helpless mountain lion cubs.
Cooper's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
Cooper finds his perfect home with Burke and quickly realizes he can do more than play and cuddle. He becomes a working companion, helping Burke with daily life and learning how useful a good dog can be.
Foxes in a Fix
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
A litter of arctic foxes escapes from the zoo, and Lily is suddenly part of the search party. She has to track down the missing kits before curiosity leads them into real danger.
Lost Little Leopard
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
When a lonely Amur leopard cub arrives at the zoo, Lily senses it needs more than food and a cage. She and Maggie Rose help a frightened wild baby feel safe enough to trust.
The Misfit Donkey
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
A baby donkey keeps getting rejected by the older donkeys next door, and no one can work out why. Lily is the one who notices what is really wrong and how to help.
The Three Bears
by W Bruce Cameron
2021
Two bear cubs are alone in the woods without their mother, and Lily cannot ignore the trouble. This quick adventure gives her one more chance to prove that rescue dogs come in all sizes.
Lacey's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2022
After an accident, Lacey must adjust to life with a wheeled cart and a whole new way of moving. When a tornado hits, her courage and quick thinking may save the people and animals she loves.
Love, Clancy
by W Bruce Cameron
2023
Clancy is keeping a diary, sorting through rivalries, and trying to understand love, all from a dog's perspective. The result is funny, sweet, and a little wistful without losing Cameron's easy warmth.
Zeus: Water Rescue
by W Bruce Cameron
2023
Zeus is a chocolate Lab puppy with the size and spirit for rescue work. Under Marco and Kimo's watch, he trains for ocean searches, daring saves, and the job he seems born to do.
My Three Dogs
by W Bruce Cameron
2024
Three dogs who love the same family are suddenly separated, and each must make sense of a new life. Cameron uses their intertwined stories to explore loss, devotion, and the stubborn pull of home.
Ripley: Fire Station Five
by W Bruce Cameron
2024
Ripley is a border collie puppy who joins a fire station and has to prove he can handle real danger. As he learns rescue work, he also helps a young girl face the fear left by a house fire.
Piper's Story
by W Bruce Cameron
2025
Piper is a kitten with big opinions, a beloved girl named Riley, and very little patience for dogs or brothers. Her plan to find a better home turns into a funny lesson about where she truly belongs.
Where should I start?
If you want the classic dog novels: A Dog's Purpose → A Dog's Journey → A Dog's Promise
If you want one big adventure: A Dog's Way Home → A Dog's Courage
If you're reading with kids: Ellie's Story → Bailey's Story → Molly's Story → Max's Story
If you want funny small-town mysteries: The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man → Repo Madness
If you want Bruce Cameron the humorist: 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter → How to Remodel a Man → 8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter
Author bio
W. Bruce Cameron was born in Petoskey, Michigan, grew up in Kansas City, and spent years learning how to make a living with words. Long before readers knew him for dog novels, he was writing humor, columns, screenplays, and plenty of unpublished work. That long runway matters with Cameron. His career looks steady in hindsight, but by his own account it took a lot of false starts to get there.
He was a writer long before he was a bestselling novelist.
A big part of his early public life came through newspaper and syndicated humor writing. His 8 Simple Rules column led to 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, a book that turned everyday family panic into something dry, funny, and very recognizable. The book later inspired the ABC sitcom of the same name, which gave Cameron a much wider audience and fixed his place, at least for a while, as a sharp observer of marriage, parenting, and domestic chaos.
That comic eye never really went away. You can see it in books like How to Remodel a Man and 8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter, where he plays with the absurd rituals of relationships and family life without sounding mean about any of it. Even when the joke is broad, the voice is usually grounded in one ordinary truth, people are strange, and the people we love are often the strangest.
Then he circled back to fiction in a bigger way. A Dog's Purpose became the book that changed his career, a heartfelt story told through the many lives of a dog trying to understand why he keeps returning. It connected with readers who loved the mix of humor, grief, loyalty, and plainspoken emotion, and it opened the door to a whole run of canine-centered novels. Cameron later adapted A Dog's Purpose and A Dog's Journey for film with his wife, Cathryn Michon.
That turned out to be a pretty good lane.
Since then he has built a wide dog-heavy bibliography that still leaves room for surprises. Readers often start with A Dog's Purpose, A Dog's Journey, or A Dog's Way Home, then branch out to books like A Dog's Promise, the middle grade Puppy Tales, or the chapter book series Lily to the Rescue! and Dogs with a Purpose. What ties them together is not fancy prose or big literary posing. It is the feeling that animals notice more than people think, and that love, grief, protection, and belonging are serious business, even when the narrator is chasing a ball or misreading a human conversation.
He has also shown he can move outside that lane when he wants to. The Dog Master jumps back into prehistory to imagine the first bond between humans and wolves. The Ruddy McCann books, beginning with The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man, lean into oddball mystery, small-town trouble, and a hero whose life has plainly gone off course. That range helps explain why his work can appeal to dog lovers, humor readers, and people who just like strong, high-concept storytelling.
Today Cameron lives in California. His official bio also makes room for a more personal detail, the family dog Tucker, whom he and Michon adopted after the story that became A Dog's Purpose brought them together. Along the way Cameron has won humor awards from the Robert Benchley Society and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, but his public image still feels less like that of a grand literary figure and more like a working writer who kept at it until he found the stories only he could tell.
Edited by
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