The Dangerous Book for Boys
by Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden
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Book Reviews of The Dangerous Book for Boys
Book Review: I have been waiting for this book all my life.
Summary: 5 Stars
Back in the 70s when I almost set a marsh on fire on Cape Cod with strike on anything matches I knew I had done wrong. I had also enlisted my younger brother who was more scared than I was when we got picked up by the fire department and driven home in a huge fire truck down a small Cape Cod road. We eventually learned how to be mischievous without it being too dangerous and also still having the perceived allure of danger. It's like walking the edge of a razor.
As childhood wore on usually all the really big scrapes, hospital visits and the like were all accidental and not attached or associated with any real mischief, perceived or otherwise. Still boys are boys, or boys will be boys, or what ever you want to call it. The perception or flirtation with danger is something hard wired in us. It's not that we want to cause trouble or get hurt but we want to move in that direction to some degree. We always know when we have gone too far and usually we never tread over that line again.
In all actuality it is really more about adventure than anything else. Boys want to seem adventurous and the feel of danger needs to be there for any significant adventure, quest, journey, or trek. After all Indy did not have it easy in Raiders. If it was easy it would have been no fun and surly not an adventure.
This book shows how to experience that sense of adventure and also where danger begins so you can steer clear of it. It is not necessarily a book to hand over to your [...] son, but I would condone sitting with them and going over age specific things depending on the maturity of your child. There are many things in this book that I still do not know and reading them on a case by case basis will be interesting even for an old guy like me.
As far as girls go, well I can only say this: "Na, na na na nah! Go get your own book."
In all seriousness, girls should not refrain from buying this book. If the allure to read it and explore it is there than it was meant for you.
As I read more I will try and update my review to be more inclusive to the details of the book. So far it looks like a gold-mine.
Book Review: Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Book Review: Single Mom and Loving It!
Summary: 5 Stars
My son received this book today as a Christmas gift from someone very dear to my heart who happens to live an ocean apart. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts he could've received because of the content within. Being a single mom, I have to play both roles and try my best, but this is a fabulous way for me to share in the wonderful things that will turn him into a man of excellence. This book covers it all and is even filled with things that I loved to do as a kid!
I plan on creating a keepsake box of life lessons in it, from poems and diary pages I wrote about my son, poetry that I feel is pertinent to his view of "manhood", and other things, but this book will definitely be included and will be definitely well worn. As a single mom, I don't profess to have all the answers, and being a woman, don't profess to have all of the knowledge my son needs to grow into a man. But this book will definitely make that journey much easier for me to navigate with my son.
It covers so much...and has the basic foundations laid out. Bravery, Service, Love of Learning, Love, Growth, Dreams, Play, Instruction, etc. This is definitely our newest literary treasure, and one that will continue to create those brilliant fireworks in my son's mind for as long as he lives...when I was told that he would be getting the book, based on the title, I said, oh great, thanks alot for that (joking) and upon reading through and flipping through the sections am so glad that it was given to my son...overwhelmed actually...it is a joy to read and to own, and for those of us old school girls who never were afraid of getting dirty, or going on our own adventures with neighborhood kids, it will be a trip down memory lane as well.
From tying knots, building go-carts, literary treasures, history, tales of bravery, how to fold paper airplanes,and much more, this book is a good read and good reference! This book is excellent, and definitely one that is now a treasured part of a single mom's household that includes one fearless boy rapidly growing before my eyes.
Book Review: Oh, boy, this is a fun book
Summary: 5 Stars
This isn't a dangerous book for boys. It is a required book for both boys and men. Older men will be reminded of the things we all learned as boys and have perhaps forgotten, like how to tie the five basic knots, how to make a tree house or a bow and arrow, Morse code and the naval flag codes. But there is also much to delight both young and old besides what we might remember.
The illustrations of the seven wonders of the ancient world are breathtaking. The description of some of the most famous battles of history and the reasons for the successes and failures are compelling. The list of things every boy should carry in his pocket is fascinating. This book is a must-have resource for any family. Hours can be spent just meandering through the pages marveling at the useful bits of information it contains.
Questions about the world are answered (Why is it hotter at the equator than at the poles? Why does the sun shine 24 hours a day at the poles?) Interesting projects abound within the book's pages (How do you make paper airplanes? Water bombs? Paper boats?) Fascinating bits of information crop up at every turn of the page: The Navajo Code Talker's Dictionary, Understanding English grammar, and Basic First Aid.
Then there are the extraordinary stories: Robert Scott and the North Pole, The Wright Brothers and their First Flight, and many others. And don't forget the many projects: building a battery, making crystals, building a tree house and more.
You can also get wrapped up in Shakespeare and an assortment of inspirational poems every young man should know, and 34 books every boy should read--along with wonderful descriptions of the seven wonders of the modern world.
Fascinating, well written, broad enough to capture every boy's interest, yet with enough depth to be able to actually do things.
Armchair Interviews says: This book belongs on every boy's bookshelf (and Dad's too)!
Book Review: A teacher's strong recommendation
Summary: 5 Stars
I often get rambunctious boys who dominate the classroom. This book can be used by a teacher to chill the homes.
American readers will be offput by its British Empire Fun Fair tone but I teach in a former colony.
We need not trash "the politically correct" to like this book. It adds and does not detract from the feminist conversation because, "oppression of girls" should not create a new oppression of the high spirits, the rambunctiousness, the courage, and the instinctive sense of honour of boys.
Use this book to get the lads on parade. If they are tossing chip butties about the classroom, enter roaring right you lot, slam this book upon the desk, open it up and in a loud voice read to them right, today we shall learn to hunt, and kill, and eat a rabbit with a gun.
This may be done with gun in hand in many American towns, but it is best to leave the gun at home elsewhere.
The girls need not feel left out for there is a fundamental asymmetry between the reactions of girls to a book marked for boys, and of boys to a book marked for girls: for girls, as a section of the book tells us in appropriate language, are mysterious and full of fancy lights on the inside, and it is well for the lad to enter what the Freud chap called the latency phase. Whereas girls have a necessary interest in the outside world of moors, and rabbits and the sea.
As it is, in the US and the UK, altogether too many boys are being railroaded towards Prison Planet by an overgentrified educational system, that reflects no true "political correctness", if we understand "political correctness" to be the code of the person who, like the Victorian ideal gentleman, would not harm others unnecessarily and only seeks to generalize this for the modern world, but instead a disgustingly middle class silence on the realities of life.