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The Dangerous Book for Boysx$11.87
  (625 reviews)
Best Price: $26.95 $11.87
The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is. In this digital age there is still a place for knots, skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes. The completely revised American Edition includes: The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Five Knots Every Boy Should Know
Stickball
Slingshots
Fossils
Building a Treehouse
Making a Bow and Arrow
Fishing (revised with US Fish)
Timers and Tripwires
Baseball's "Most Valuable Players"
Famous Battles-Including Lexington and Concord, The Alamo, and Gettysburg
Spies-Codes and Ciphers
Making a Go-Cart
Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
Girls
Cloud Formations
The States of the U.S.
Mountains of the U.S.
Navigation
The Declaration of Independence
Skimming Stones
Making a Periscope
The Ten Commandments
Common US Trees
Timeline of American History Equal parts droll and gorgeous nostalgia book and heartfelt plea for a renewed sense of adventure in the lives of boys and men, Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys became a mammoth bestseller in the United Kingdom in 2006. Adapted, in moderation, for American customs in this edition (cricket is gone, rugby remains; conkers are out, Navajo Code Talkers in), The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. The book's ambitions are both modest and winningly optimistic: you get the sense that by learning how to place a splint or write in invisible ink, a boy might be prepared for anything, even girls (which warrant a small but wise chapter of their own). Inside The Dangerous Book for Boys 
Figure 8 Knot | 
Sheet Bend Knot | 
The Battle of Waterloo | Questions for Conn Iggulden Conn and Hal Iggulden are two brothers who have not forgotten what it was like to be boys. Conn taught for many years before becoming one of the most admired and popular young historical novelists with his Emperor series, based on the life of Julius Caesar, and his newly embarked series on Genghis Khan, while Hal is a theater director. We asked Conn about their collaboration. Amazon.com: It's difficult to describe what a phenomenon The Dangerous Book for Boys was in the UK last year. When I would check the bestseller list on our sister site, Amazon.co.uk, there would be, along with your book, which spent much of the year at the top of the list, a half-dozen apparent knockoff books of similar boy knowledge. Clearly, you tapped into something big. What do you think it was?  Iggulden: In a word, fathers. I am one myself and I think we've become aware that the whole "health and safety" overprotective culture isn't doing our sons any favors. Boys need to learn about risk. They need to fall off things occasionally, or--and this is the important bit--they'll take worse risks on their own. If we do away with challenging playgrounds and cancel school trips for fear of being sued, we don't end up with safer boys--we end up with them walking on train tracks. In the long run, it's not safe at all to keep our boys in the house with a Playstation. It's not good for their health or their safety.
You only have to push a boy on a swing to see how much enjoys the thrill of danger. It's hard-wired. Remove any opportunity to test his courage and they'll find ways to test themselves that will be seriously dangerous for everyone around them. I think of it like playing the lottery--someone has to say "Look, you won't win--and your children won't be hurt. Relax. It won't be you." I think that's the core of the book's success. It isn't just a collection of things to do. The heroic stories alone are something we haven't had for too long. It isn't about climbing Everest, but it is an attitude, a philosophy for fathers and sons. Our institutions are too wrapped up in terror over being sued--so we have to do things with them ourselves. This book isn't a bad place to start. As for knockoff books--great. They'll give my son something to read that doesn't involve him learning a dull moral lesson of some kind--just enjoying an adventure or learning skills and crafts so that he has a feeling of competence and confidence--just as we have. Amazon.com: You made some changes for the U.S. edition, and I for one am sorry that you have removed the section on conkers, if only because it's such a lovely and mysterious word. What are (or what is) conkers? Iggulden: Horse chestnuts strung on a shoelace and knocked against one another until they shatter. In the entire history of the world, no one has ever been hurt by a conker, but it's still been banned by some British schools, just in case. Another school banned paper airplanes. Honestly, it's enough to make you weep, if I did that sort of thing, which I try not to. Reading Jane Austen is still allowed, however. Amazon.com: What knowledge did you decide was important to add for American boys? I notice in both editions you have an excellent and useful section on table football, as played with coins. Is paper football strictly an American pastime? I'm not sure I could have gotten through the fourth grade without it. Iggulden: I like knowing the details of battles, so Gettysburg and the Alamo had to go in, along with the Gettysburg address, stickball, state capitals, U.S. mountains, American trees, insects, U.S. historical timelines, and a lot of others. Navajo code talkers of WWII is a great chapter. It probably helps that I am a huge fan of America. It was only while rewriting for the U.S. that I realized how many positive references there already are. You have NASA and NASA trumps almost anything. As for paper football, ever since I thought of putting the book together, people keep saying things like "You have rockets in there, yes? Everyone loves rockets!" Paper football is the first American one, but there will be many others. No book in the world is long enough to put them all in--unless we do a sequel, of course. Amazon.com: Do you think The Dangerous Book for Boys is being read by actual boys, or only by nostalgic adults? Have you seen boys getting up from their Xboxes to go outside and perform first aid or tan animal skins or build go-carts? Iggulden: I've had a lot of emails and letters from boys who loved the book--as well as fathers. I've had responses from kids as young as ten and an old man of 87, who pointed out a problem with the shadow stick that we've since changed. The thing to remember is that we may be older and more cynical every year, but boys simply aren't. If they are given the chance to make a go-cart with their dad, they jump at it. Mine did. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to know the book is being used with fathers and sons together, trying things out. Nothing is more valuable to a boy than time with his dad, learning something fun--or something difficult. That's part of the attitude too. If it's hard, you don't make it easy, you grab it by the throat and hang on for as long as it takes. The book is often bought by fathers, of course. Their sons don't know Scott of the Antarctic is a great adventure story. How could they if it isn't taught any more? Good, heroic stories don't appear much in modern school curriculums--and then we wonder why boys don't seem interested. Amazon.com: And finally, on to the important questions: Should Pluto still be a planet? And what was the best dinosaur? Iggulden: Pluto is a planet. I know there are scientists who say it isn't, but it's big enough to be round and it has a moon, for crying out loud. Of course it's a planet. Give it ten years and they'll be agreeing with me again. As for the best dinosaur, it depends what you mean by best. For sheer perfection, it probably has to be the shark and the crocodile. Modern ones are smaller but their record for sheer survival is pretty impressive. I only hope humanity can do as well. The only thing that will stop us is worrying too much.
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Customer Reviews
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A Breath of Fresh Air
By A1UEQVP4MFRGX8 on 2007-05-30
I have been thoroughly enjoying the book, as has my son and thousands of boys (and dads!) in Great Britain and the US. What is it about this book that brings such excitement to so many?
If I had to offer my opinion, I would say that the appeal of this book is that it does not ask any boy to apologize for being a boy. Our culture is infested with the demand that boys forgo their God given call to grow up to be men, largely because we have adopted an unhealthy view of just what a man is. Whether our example be found in Homer Simpson, Ray Romano or the dad on Family Guy, men are portrayed as selfish imbeciles in a large portion of the media. Women are shown to be compassionate and intelligent, and they are usually given the role of the one who fixes the problems created by men. I have no doubt that most women are compassionate and intelligent, but the common negative portrayal of men is presented far too often, and frankly I'm tired of it.
This book has a different take on what it means to be a boy, which is important because boys grow up to be men. From a biblical standpoint, men are meant to lead their families and churches by serving them. Where can you find such a concept on the television? You can't. This is yet another reason to get this book in the hands of a boy and his dad and get them outside to explore the world, whether that be an excursion in the woods or even just in the back yard. But how does this book portray a boy? What ideals are encouraged?
I'm glad you asked.
I simply cannot take this book section by section. There are instructions meant to get a boy started in tying knots, making a bow and arrow, fishing and many other activities. These are expected out of a book about being a boy. But included with such topics are other mini-chapters about the wonders of the world, grammar, historical battles, understanding latitude and longitude (something I never grasped in a classroom), the Declaration of Independence, poetry, Latin phrases, literature the Ten Commandments and also how to talk to girls.
I mention talking to girls last, not because it is the last topic, but because I would like to highlight it for a moment. The first piece of advice about girls is to listen to them. The second is to avoid a long string of nervous jokes by listening to them. I'm sure that my wife wishes I had this book as a child! After this, romance is mentioned. Buying flowers is often not a good idea if you are young, because the girl will know your parents purchased them. I wouldn't have thought of that. Anonymous valentines are a good idea, due to the suspense the girl will have trying to figure out who's eye she has caught. Vulgarity of all forms is to be avoided at all costs. Respect for girls is given the utmost priority.
Is this what is so dangerous about this book? Is it the high value the authors place upon girls or is it the very fact that they say that girls and boys are not identical? Is it the suggestion that every boy should have band-aids available for the inevitable mishap, because our bodies do heal? Or is it the way this book portrays a healthy boy in a way that expresses both a boy's natural desire for adventure and the ideal of respectfulness for others? I really can't say for sure.
If I had to pick one way that this book is considered dangerous and why it has met some opposition, I would say that it is because The Dangerous Book for Boys resonates so well with dads who can only wish such a book was available to them when they were growing up, and because their sons by and large are reveling in the contemplation of spending Sunday afternoons and long summer days with their dads, rediscovering what it means to be a boy with their father acting as the primary instructor.
I give this book my highest praise and encourage every dad to buy it for their sons. If you have a boy, you really need to get this book. If you don't have any boys, I'm sure you know somebody who does.
G. K. Chesterton on Boys
By A2LLTV9E3S8S5D on 2007-05-01
What a marvelous idea for a book! It puts into action what G. K. Chesterton wrote in a 1906 magazine article:
*****
A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting; a child always stands for the good militarism as against the bad. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression. The child's hero is never the man or boy who attempts by his mere personal force to extend his mere personal influence. In all boys' books, in all boys' conversation, the hero is one person and the bully the other. That combination of the hero and bully in one, which people now call the Strong Man or the Superman, would be simply unintelligible to any schoolboy....
But really to talk of this small human creature, who never picks up an umbrella without trying to use it as a sword, who will hardly read a book in which there is no fighting, who out of the Bible itself generally remembers the "bluggy" [bloody] parts, who never walks down the garden without imagining himself to be stuck all over with swords and daggers--to take this human creature and talk about the wickedness of teaching him to be military, seems rather a wild piece of humour. He has already not only the tradition of fighting, but a far manlier and more genial tradition of fighting than our own. No; I am not in favour of the child being taught militarism. I am in favour of the child teaching it.
****
And for those rainy days with mommy makes the young warrior stay indoors, get him wonderful, imaginative books such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, along with tales of exploration like those of Ernest Shackleton and the two brave young men in Across Asia on a Bicycle
--Michael W. Perry, Untangling Tolkien
Pride of Ownership
By A2HL7R8R23NERT on 2007-05-10
Some books you hang onto because they are useful, or well written, or happy memories are associated with them. And then there are the select books that are so handsome, you keep them because of pride of ownership. THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS is a keeper in all these categories. It is so durable and well designed, it is an absolute pleasure to hold and read.
As to its actual contents, it sits at the pinnacle of nonfiction for early teen and 'tween boys, alongside The Big Book of Boy Stuff by, er, yours truly. Anyway, the chapters in DANGEROUS BOOK are a glorious, encyclopedic hodge-podge. They range from the historical ("The Golden Age of Piracy") to the esoteric ("Grinding an Italic Nib"!) to the quite daring ("Understanding Grammar").
My kudos to the Brothers Iggulden for this retro look celebrating the secrets of boyhood. And again, neither gender nor age should restrict its readership; this book looks great sitting on anyone's nightstand.
Poor Adaptation for Americans
By A20P8TL8I3P87U on 2007-06-12
I heard the author on NPR recently and was excited to see the book. I am English by birth and thought that the US edition would reflect American history, values and adventurers. In fact, I was highly disappointed because it really doesn't.
There are just way too many British heroes and cultural references. And didn't Roald Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole anyway? Why on earth would you leave the rules of soccer and rugby in!!? There is no mention of Native American cultures whatsoever, or explorers such as Lewis and Clarke. I am presuming that the editors were in such a rush to get this UK bestseller to the US market they decided to take a chance with a premature launch of this half-baked product. I hate to be so critical of this book when so many people love it, but the publisher (and authors) really missed their opportunity to produce a first-class boys handbook that would stand the test of time - it really would not have been that difficult to do.
I could go on and on about this lack of attention to the cultural biases and faux pas' but I'll stop now. Maybe the Iggulden's and Collins will revise and re-print a more appropriate and interesting version for American readers.
-ndb, 2007
too bad.
By A2ZEQEK5NSQE19 on 2007-05-03
i am curious why it is that the authors of this book took pains to make it sexist. tying knots, fishing, building forts, learning morse code, discerning different kinds of trees and clouds.... these are all fun things for kids. not boys in particular, but children. i have a daughter who would love a lot of these activities and i buy this book for her, if it wasn't for the brow beating way they deliberately make it exclusive. i'm surprised that in 2007 there are still people who cling so tenaciously to sexist mores that they have to label gender neutral activities as "for boys."
it's a shame. i'd have bought it, if not for that.
- I detect an agenda here....
By A32DU4XZSCD30R on 2007-06-16
Seems like a great book with all the attention to non-TV activities, battles, knots, and construction, but it really is "dangerous" in the sense that it contains material about Christianity. What is this, an attempt to slip in a little dogma and indoctrination, among the "manly" activities? Seems like a preface to right-wing theocracy to me....
- Saving Boys From Feminized Political Correctness.
By A1IHT31N8RLPN8 on 2007-07-16
First, I would read this along with Christina Hoff Sommers book, "The War Against Boys." For the past 40 years feminized political correctness has been smothering the natural instincts & energies of young males. Now in the 21st century we act surprised when so many young men have grown up feeling like a cross between a castrated drone & a potted plant. What the authors address in fine detail is that most boys are aggressive, loud & are often prone to fighting. There is nothing evil about boys being boys. Their hunter/warrior mindset should be disciplined, not discarded. It has helped the human race survive to the present for good reason. Without our instinctive pursuit of a little danger, boys would become cowardly men & the evil few would rule over the majority.
The authors don't defend boys acting like savages, but being civilized does not mean you have to be self-repressed & hyper-sensitive. Life is full of hardships & everyone has to develop thicker skins & coping mechanisms. The authors want boys to be respectful, & honorable without losing their innate maleness. The book is a cross between the whole earth catalogue, the boy scout manual, the art of war, & a wide cross section of articles from various mens magazines. Parents, & mothers in particular may find this useful in understanding & thus, raising their sons better. To varying degrees girls may also find it useful in dealing with what they deem as perplexing male behaviors. The fact is that the differences between the sexes are what both confuse & attracts them to each other. As with adults, if they understand each others differences they realize they are there to balance & compliment one another. many may find this book to be a compendium of earlier works, which it may be? Nonetheless, it should prove refreshing & useful.
- The Dangerous Book for Boys
By A1PDUZ7YM8K6XT on 2006-06-16
I just bought this book for my son, who is 8, after reading a review in the London Times. It is a great book! It covers all the fun things like how to make a paper airplane, build a tree house, and tie knots, as well as things like grammar and history. I read through the book last night; the section on 'Girls' cracked me up! We have the UK edition, so the history bits are British centric, but this may be different in a US edition. Either way, I'd still recommend it. Buy it for your boys, but read it yourself. Those knots may come in useful some day!
- If only...
By A3TL0Y3FRH6ZYD on 2007-05-02
My mom wouldn't let me go to summer camp because she thought I would drown in a lake. Consequently, I couldn't use a power tool until I was twenty-five years old. And I still can't tie a decent knot. If only I'd had this book! Especially the chapter about girls. Absolutely crucial information for any boy and it's written by witty and learned authors. I've already bought a copy for my three-year-old son. N. Smith author of Stolen from Gypsies.
- Great info, easy to use, for girls too
By A10G4BPT5MGBHY on 2007-05-06
"I don't want to do anything but get fat and pasty and sit in front of a video screen." Has any boy ever said that? Of course not. But sadly, these days that's exactly what so many of them do. This book makes a good antidote. A clear-cut, easy-to-use guide for parents to help their children live full childhoods, it serves a role similar to books like What Your First Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education (The Core Knowledge Series). Much like lessons in a textbook, the various topics each stand alone on their own pages and are illustrated with drawings, photographs, or both.
And it's not just Tom Sawyer stuff. The book also includes academic topics such as grammar, geography, the solar system, even the Ten Commandments. See that table-of-contents-like list above, on this page's "product description"? That's less than half of what's here! There are 46 other articles, too, each one to four pages long:
1. Essential Gear
2. Questions About the World
3. Making a Battery
4. The Rules of Soccer
5. Dinosaurs
6. Understanding Grammar
7. Table Football
8. U.S. Naval Flag Codes
9. Making Crystals
10. Insects and Spiders
11. Juggling
12. Making a Paper Hat, Boat and Water Bomb
13. Astronomy -- the Study of the Heavens
14. Marbling Paper
15. First Aid
16. Map of the United States
17. Extraordinary Stories
18. Making Cloth Fireproof
19. Building a Workbench
20. Pocket Light
21. Five Pen-and-Paper Games
22. The Golden Age of Piracy
23. A Simple Electromagnet
24. Secret Inks
25. Sampling Shakespeare
26. Grinding an Italic Nib
27. The Moon Pinhole Projector Charting the Universe Dog Tricks Wrapping a Package in Brown Paper and String
28. Star Maps
29. Seven Poems Every Boy Should Know
30. Coin Tricks
31. Light
32. Latin Phrases Every Boy Should Know
33. How to Play Poker
34. Marbles
35. A Brief History of Artillery
36. The Origin of Words
37. The Solar System
38. The Game of Chess
39. Hunting and Cooking a Rabbit
40. Tanning a Skin
41. Growing Sunflowers
42. Role-Playing Games
43. Seven Modern Wonders of the World
44. Books Every Boy Should Read
45. Standard and Metric Measurements
46. Dangerous Book for Boys Badges
All in all, "The Dangerous Book for Boys" has only two flaws. First, the old-fashioned cover implies these subjects are more suited to Great Grandpa's memories than young Junior's life of today. But juggling? Chess? Soccer? What's so old-time about this stuff? Second, why "Boys"? "What's wrong with teaching our daughter how to tie a bowline, or make a paper airplane, or build a go cart?" my husband asked as he flipped through it. I guess the author, or publisher, is aware there's not much out there for parents of young boys and is trying to zero-in on that deserving niche.
To sum up, then, this book is useful even if you're the most modern of all families, even if you don't have a son. If you actually use it, it will become far more valuable to your child's happiness and sense of self than any video-game console, DVD, computer, or especially -- such blasphemy! -- the latest iPod. There's so much here to help your kid be a kid.
- Boys and Girls
By AX6P5SYEW6ZQ4 on 2007-05-20
Where is the Dangerous Book for Girls? Are paper airplanes a boys-only territory? A great book for boys, but I fear that the things outlined in the book will be taken as boy-ish things; girls should be encouraged to be adventurous too.
- Disappointing. Maybe this stuff was dangerous in the 50s but it's not dangerous now!!
By A3UHWNH1PZYEUJ on 2007-06-02
I think this book was improperly named. It should have been titled: "Dangerous Book For Boys, according to your Mom" or "Dangerous Book for Boys growing up in the 1950s"
At least that was my my impression. Pretty lame stuff. Fossils? Baseball? Knots? What's dangerous about a fossil? Marbles? Nobody's played marbles for 50 years. Or baseball? Well, I did bat my little sister in the crotch once with a ball-so I can see that...
If I can't "shoot my eye out," I'm really not interested. This book is secretly a feminist tool-designed to keep boys from doing what they REALLY want to do--shoot people's eyes out.
I recommend "Anarchists Cook Book." Now, THAT'S a dangerous book for boys! Or the Koran!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit
By A1898U6W2QMOLS on 2007-11-19
I read the entire book. It was very Republican. It was very British. It was kind of quaint. Until the KILLING chapter. The book advises boys to get a GUN and then go out and shoot and kill a rabbit, then skin it, gut it and cook it. So um...they can learn where food comes from.
If there is something I love to see it is encouraging children to use guns and kill small defenseless animals. Nothing says - good old fashioned fun like skinning an animal and ripping its internal organs from the cracked cavity of its ribcage. I mean what else could be more wholesome?
Come on Billy (or Neville if you are in the UK) come out with Dad and lets kill a bunny! Then you can skin it, decapitate it, gut it and cook it - YUM!
If you want to show Billy where food comes from - there are plenty of upsetting videos available from PETA that will turn him into a Vegan faster than you can say Soy Burger. He doesn't need to actually kill anything. Or use a gun.
Think about what a better place the world would be if little boys didn't grow up using guns and playing guns and playing let's kill EVERYTHING ON THE PLANET!
Why not try to teach Billy RESPECT FOR ALL SENTIENT BEINGS?
We might find ourselves down a war or two in the future.
Update: I was stunned by the comments on this review. There are quite a few people (mostly men) who felt it was very important to make fun of me, belittle me and suggest that I need to be a killer with a gun and a meat eater in order to have an opinion. I do not eat animals. I do not use animal based products as much as I can possibly know what is in everything that I purchase. I am careful about this and stick to mostly whole foods and unprocessed items. I am Buddhist and therefore have respect for all sentient beings. An Ant. A Cockroach. And even the people who posted such nasty comments aimed at me. On the upside, it's nice to know that with the exception of a few vegetarians who made comments supporting my review that the other commenter's proved my point exactly as they showed themselves to be mindless, small defenseless animal murdering, gun-toting thugs.
- A great book for bonding!
By A1POFVVXUZR3IQ on 2007-05-21
I got this book for myself [mom of a girl] because I used to be quite a tomboy as a child and my daughter seems to be heading that way too:) But, I am planning to get this for my dad for Father's Day so he can try some of the skills in this book with my younger brother. Its a great book...in an age where most kids' idea of fun is staying indoors and either being glued to the TV or playing video games, this is a timely reminder that the greatest joy in life is to exercise the mind and hands in healthy, intelligent, adventurous pursuits, preferably outdoors! The skills covered in this book are diverse in levels of difficulty, but all of them are unique and though some may seem quite dated , it is also refreshing to come across a few from my childhood days:) Highly recommended for the young and young-at-heart!And the lovely red cover with illustrations is an added bonus!
- It's too dangerous!
By A1CHOKV10NEI8X on 2007-06-13
And great for it!
It's dangerous because it brings back values from a time when personal responsibility was assumed, not assumed to be absent. Hunting with airguns is dangerous, but teaches that meat doesn't arrive on Earth wrapped in clear plastic. Anything to do with spies is dangerous, but codes and invisible inks are fun, can be used responsibly, and are an important part of history (n.b. the role of espionage in the American Revolution). Doing things with electricity like making batteries, electromagnets, and pocket lights is dangerous, but teaches some of fundements of the technologies that drive the modern world. Soccer is dangerous, I've seen kids break bones playing it, but it is good healthy fun, and the kids who broke bones openly and loudly resented having to sit out games while they recovered. Girls are dangerous in so many ways, but when treated with respect can make life better. Grammar is dangerous, especially in the hands of an attorney, but creates quite an advantage for those who master it.
All these things and more are discussed, and alternatives to XBox, Gameboy, PlayStation, etc are offered. This book is incredibly dangerous to proponents of a 'managed society' where everyone is protected from everything, and everyone is free and happy in exactly the proscribed fashion. And I'm OK with this. Because "the Dangerous Book for Boys" also encourages responsibility, manners, education, self-reliance, creativity, and a host of other values that receive lip-service but little actual support in mainstream America.
Several reviewers have expressed their displeasure with the phrase "for Boys". Get over it. Get some perspective; if this is the most important thing you can take a stand about, go visit a third world country and watch children walk half a mile for water every day. Who cares what it says on the cover? I bought it with a blond, blue-eyed, [...] girl in mind, and she loves it. If it is such a heartache to you, quit whining and write "The Dangerous Book for Girls" while my daughter reads this one.
For the rest of y'all, get this for any boy or girl of any age. This book is excellent and an investment in the future.
- My 6 year old went nuts for it.
By AW4GC20Q3F1ZA on 2007-05-16
I bought this book after seeing the author on the Colbert show (or was it the Daily Show?). I loved the idea of the book and ordered it from Amazon immediately.
On arrival if found it exceeds my expectation. It reminds me a lot of the Popular Mechanics books from the 30's & 40's that I found in my grandmothers attic when I was a kid.
The style is archaic, which is part of the charm. My 6 year old son, who really isn't into "chapter books", went nuts for this book. I think this mostly had to do with the title, but as we scanned each chapter together he seemed to get more and more excited.
Before his bed time we read "coin tricks", "Girls" and he started planning how to get the badges found in the back of the book. He managed to learn the "French Drop" and proceeded to show everyone his new trick. Tomorrow he wants to hear about hunting and cooking rabbits.
My wife was a bit nervous about the book, especially after seeing the section on hunting and cooking a rabbit. But I think she liked the section on "Girls" and she realizes that this book is targeted to boys, not Moms.
It's definitely a hit. I will be reading chapters out of it to my son for some time to come. But I don't mind and will probably learn a thing or two myself.
- Love this book, but what about the girls?!
By AYTWYD6W7MLIT on 2007-05-03
This book can easily be used by girls, the fact that this book is geared exclusively to boys is unbelievable. The girls would not only love reading the book but would have fun being up to no good. It's a shame in this day and age.
- remakes boys out of men
By A1EEV9KIOOOCH on 2007-05-04
I bought one for my grandson and his role model. Once I started reading it, I bought one for me too! Lots of good clean fun and useful stuff. Popping up throughout the book are things I never thought a boy would read, like poetry, grammer rules, charts of the states and capitols and such! But they are written in "guy language" and with suggestions on when and where they are useful. Definately a keeper and user!
- Sets Kids Free, But Don't Constrict Them
By A3H9Q835JBGC25 on 2007-05-05
This book has great practical sections on how to make this or do that fun activity. My one hope is that no one feel overly pressured to pigeon-hole our kids based on their sex, but that all parents will be attentive to the individual personalities and quirks of our children. (This is a hard balance, for we all innately shape our kids from day one, including in terms of gender socialization). Growing up I loved climbing trees, hated princesses, and loved dinosaurs and could (and can) beat any non-paleontologist on the matter, and I'm female--thus I would've loved many of these activities growing up. I'm also sure some boys are more risk-averse than others--please don't force boys to do risky things if they're uncomfortable and don't really want to do it just because they're male, and be open to letting girls learn to take a fun risk now and then. Just because on the whole there's 'differences' between the sexes doesn't mean it's true for every individual and that everything that's 'average' should likewise be normative. Set kids free rather than forcing them into your expectations or own childhood dreams, and maybe this book can help you do that...we've had our shot at childhood, now let them have theirs.
- Dangers Be Gone
By A3KKM0T1KY42HA on 2007-06-06
Here are some dangerous things: Catch with my boys before bed...indoors; The Fighting Game (we wrestle) before bed; Playstation (oh no!) before bed.
What could be more fun (or dangerous) for a couple of pre-teen boys than those things as a before-bed activity in our household? Prior to my boys' grandparents giving them "The Dangerous Book for Boys", I'd have been hard-pressed to come up with anything.
However, since "The Dangerous Book for Boys" has been on the night table in the boys' room, it is all that they want to do before bed. Unbelievable.
46 chapters covering dozens of topics from how-to-do-this to how-to-do-that, to history, to word origins, to marbles and so much much more. Terrific, mostly simple stuff that my guys weren't interested in yesterday, but show it to them in this book today, and every topic is captivating.
It will be a sad day when we get to the last chapter. You'll be surprised how interested your kids are in "The Dangerous Book for Boys".
Add it to your cart!
- Buy this for boys of any age!
By A395QKQZ15GP4F on 2007-05-01
Today we often hear people lament the "good old days" when we let our children walk to school, and we scolded them when they fell out of trees before taking them to the hospital. No-one sued anyone for negligence, and there was a widely held, if not actually admitted, assumption that boys had to break something (or at least lose a good deal of skin) in order to be real boys.
This book celebrates the essence of those heady days without encouraging the injuries that I'm sure we can do without. Boys are still boys in the land of the Iggulden brothers!
This is a book for boys who (a) don't play computer games, (b) watch much TV and (c) are frightened of girls (there is a very informative chapter about this essential topic). Now of course we know that there are NO boys like this in the modern Western world, so this is the very book to buy for small boys who have no idea what to do when there is no electirical screen, and for big boys who have fond memories of such times.
ALL boys need to know how to tie knots, and go fishing, and discuss dinosaurs with a degree of confidence. ALL boys need to know how to live a life within their imagination, and to enjoy the simpler things in life.
This is a beautiful, well crafted and physically desirable book, one which will charm and delight any boy that you know. I know my 45 year old husband appreciated it enormously at his last birthday!
- Magical, Mesmerizing FUN!
By A2F8Z1R6UNQ41R on 2007-06-01
I bought this book for my nine year old nephew. When the box arrived and I opened it, the appearance of this book literally took my breath away. It is a large, beautifully fabric bound book with gold leaf lettering. Very retro and charming. Looks like it could have been pulled off of a bookshelf in the 40's. As I watched my nephew thumb through the chapters I saw and felt his excitement as he found sections on fossils, baseball, knots, bows and arrows, pirates and so much more. He is very excited to try everything he found!! I'm a woman in my 40's but I want a copy for MYSELF!!! Buy this book...you'll be glad you did. Oh, and go ahead and get that extra copy for yourself while you're at it.
- Can't wait to get this book
By A3GR9ROEFOSGZU on 2007-05-04
I can't wait to receive this book. As the mother of four children, two of which are boys, I can honestly say that in general, there is a difference between the minds of boys and girls. When we deny this difference we do a disservice to out children.
My youngest child is a rough and tumble girl. I doubt very much that she will care that the book has the word 'boy' in the title. In fact, knowing her, she will be intrigued. Most of her friends are boys, so she will simply share the information with them.
- A book grandparents love to buy but kids don't read
By APBYNACDEMZZE on 2007-07-11
My mother rushed out to buy the book after hearing it discussed on public radio. It's a book adults love to love. Our twelve-year-old read the two pages on girls and hasn't opened it since.
- Perfect for moms of boys
By A3RQBG06UAZAMK on 2007-04-19
As a mom of two boys (who happened to grow up in a household with three sisters and no brothers), I needed this book. Sometimes I am at a loss over what skills to teach my boys. How to tie knots, play chess, shoot marbles, skim rocks, build a go-cart...it's all in here. With diagrams and sketches, the book feels like a manual you'll return to time and time again. It even includes poems every boy should know, such as Whitman and Frost. Would make a wonderful Mother's Day or Father's Day gift for parents of boys.
- Letting Boys Be Boys--Again
By A3Q04XXGGED746 on 2007-10-06
What memories this book brings! Forty years ago, the Boy Scout handbook had so many of the same themes as this book: first aid, the Morse code, use of a compass, the Constellations, knot tying, tree identification, etc. But this book has much more than that. There are also educational features, such as the Seven Wonders of the World, the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Fifty States, Famous Battles, Shakespeare, basic grammatical skills, Latin phrases, extraordinary stories, etc. As a science teacher, I appreciate its scientific content (e. g., puzzling questions, insects and spiders, fossils, making crystals, building a battery, astronomy, types of clouds, the solar system, secret inks, codes and ciphers).
Like arts and crafts? You can learn how to build a go-cart, a treehouse, a workbench, various paper airplanes, a bow and arrow, timer and tripwire, etc.
How about sports? There's soccer, rugby, baseball's most valuable players, juggling, etc. Like something gentler? Then try table football, marbles, pen-and-paper games, chess, poker and other card games.
The Inguldens comment: "Is it old fashioned? Well, it depends. Men and boys today are the same as they always were, and interested in the same things." (p. xi)
The authors probably chose the title of this book facetiously, or as an attention-getter. In fact, little if anything in this book, done correctly, is dangerous!
- Hardly Dangerous Book For Anyone (or Biggest Literary Scam of 2007)
By A20FX4NHYFJ59D on 2008-01-21
Move over James Frey and make room next to A Million Little Pieces. Here is the biggest literary scam of the year. This thing has been on the best sellers list forever, why? I'm sure the "boys" didn't put it there. No, parents out of a real sense of duty to their boys (or girls) have bought this book by the millions to.. What? get them back to normal? Back in fighting form? Back to Huck and Tom shape? I do believe the art of being a boy might be getting lost. But contrary to restoring that "art" this book seeks to cover it in several layers of eggshell white.
Sure there is a neat page on trip wires but where are the animal traps?
They mention a Swiss Army Knife but not the finer points of rope, twine and string. Wrapping things in brown paper? Yes. Making a boomerang? No!!. Poems? Yes. Slingshot? No. Shakespeare, Marbling paper? Yes, Yes. Lassos, sharpening a knife? No and No. Grinding an calligraphy pen nib (ohhh Dangerous!) making a kite? Nope too scary I guess. I can't wait for the second volume, sure to contain such dangerous activities as "poaching an egg", "creasing trousers" and (gasp) "re-potting orchids". What is the world coming to when a book with "Dangerous" in it's title doesn't even tell you how to start a camp fire?
Buy your son or daughter a good knife, and a copy of FM 21-76 the US Army Survival Manual.. It's cheaper in the end and far, far more useful..
Boys (and Girls) ought to have a bit of dangerous knowledge. If you don't teach it to them. They'll just pick it up on the streets! Or worse yet from this book, which I think was based on a Noël Coward play..
- Just for boys? I don't think so...
By A3VDJP8E4VH4WF on 2007-05-26
I saw this book being sold locally and read the preface page and was hooked. The only thing I see wrong with the book is that it is billed as being a boys book. I would have loved to have this book as a little girl. It has so many interesting items in it. I bought it for myself and told my son that though he could read it, it is my book :-)
I am looking forward to doing some of the things in the book with my son, or even my daughter if she shows and interest.
Is there going to be a book also for girls? If so, I would hope it doesn't end up being a housekeeping and sewing manual. Girls need adventure and fun too. :-)
- Fabulous! Something we really needed!
By A2XRMQA6PJ5ZJ8 on 2007-06-05
This is a wonderful book for any young lad. It is literally a treasurehouse of topics that will interest young (and not so young) boys and even men. It has cool sections about dinosaurs and bugs (and what young boy is not interested in these things?) as well as practical articles about neat things like how to tie knots, etc. Nothing in here about how to get in touch with your feelings or feminine side, and the book is all the better for that.
With any luck, this book will interest a young boy, and maybe cause him to spend some time reading instead of playing with videogames. So far, with my own son, things look promising in that regards. Any book that can do that deserves every one of its five stars.
- You and Your son should Join Cub Scouts
By AUMJ3UMG2Y02W on 2007-07-16
This book is nothing new. 95% of it has been taught to boys and thier parents for over 75 years in Cub Scouts. The book will end up on the shelf in six months and forgotten.
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