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| The Dangerous Book for Boys | 
 enlarge | Authors: Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $13.80
You Save: $13.15 (49%)
New (63) Used (27) Collectible (9) from $12.18
Avg. Customer Rating:  631 reviews
Sales Rank: 308
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 270
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0061243582
Dewey Decimal Number: 031.02
EAN: 9780061243585
ASIN: 0061243582
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, IN-HOUSE READY TO SHIP!!! NOT A BARGAIN, REMAINDER OR BOOKCLUB BOOK!!! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER.
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| Customer Reviews:
 too bad. May 3, 2007
64 out of 422 found this review helpful
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.
 Saving Boys From Feminized Political Correctness. July 16, 2007
51 out of 54 found this review helpful
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 June 16, 2006
46 out of 51 found this review helpful
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... May 2, 2007
43 out of 47 found this review helpful
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 May 6, 2007
38 out of 53 found this review helpful
"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.
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