Book Review: The Dangerous Book For Boys

Review of The Dangerous Book For Boys

I adore this book.

The Dangerous Book For Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden is a compilation of stuff boys (and girls, too, age 8 or so on up) should know. Things like Morse Code, how to make a battery, the rudiments of English grammar, how to tie knots, insects and spiders, how to build the best paper airplane in the world,the fifty (U.S.) states, making a periscope, Latin phrases every boy should know, fishing, etc.

I'm not sure there's anything more I can even say about it that reading the table of contents wouldn't cover. It's just awesome. My 5-year-old is a little young for it, but he's been scrutinizing the drawings of the Seven Wonders of the World and asking me all sorts of questions about them. He keeps flipping to the chapter on making a pocket light and reading slowly through the instructions. He's looking at the chart of naval signal flags and puzzling out what makes them different from each other. He's excited about building a treehouse from the instructions some day.

I think I'm going to start giving this book as a baby shower gift for people who are having boys. I'm definitely giving it to my dad for Father's Day. And there are at least three adult male friends of mine who are getting it for their birthdays this year. I usually pass on review books I get, but I'm keeping this one for sure, and my two boys will probably end up fighting over it in 40 years.

This may be the worst book review ever, because I'm just speechless with delight at the book itself, and there's nothing I can possibly say about how perfect it is. I dare you to get it and not think it's fabulous. (Oh, and I just looked at the Amazon review, and it turns out that Conn Iggulden is extremely hot. Bonus points for the book, IMO.) I dare you to get it and not spend three hours reading it before you fork it over to your child. Now I'm going to go so I can read through the "Books every boy should read" chapter.

Comments

[Josh]

Look, I thought the whole gender neutral stuff went out in the 90's? Science has shown that there are not only physical differences between m/f but our brains are hard wired differently. Yes, many girls love killing and skinning rabbits, but far more boys are intrigued then girls. I have always thought that video games clearly demonstrated this. Yes some girls love video games, but it is an extremely low percentage compared to boys. How many girls love D&D? No the book is not just for boys. There is a whole section on grammar - pretty gender neutral - but to be horrified by the title is a little silly. I'm a teacher and the other teachers that I showed this book to were thrilled to have something that the boys in their class may latch onto. Most of these teachers are progressive women, but their daily experience has helped them realize the enormous gender differences that are hard wired.

[hedra]

I know what Foster is getting at, though I disagree with his perception that 'discouragement/suppression of one-end-of-range of normal male behaviors' is the same as 'making them girly'. Yes, I'll agree that some threads of our current culture seem to reject many normal male patterns of behavior (power/hierarchy, aggression and dominance as methods of social control, and physicality as an outlet for a wide variety of mental processes including emotions), but that doesn't necessarily equal 'making men be *like* women'. The problem is in thinking of the normal ranges of behavior as a continuum from girls at one end and boys at the other. It isn't so, at all, and the physiology and behavioral research should just make that more clear, not less. There are TWO ranges. One for men, one for women, and they cover the same total behaviors. Put them on one spectrum, and it implies things that are just not true. No matter how aggressive the female, she'll never be MALE, and no matter how artistic the male, he'll never be FEMALE. They pretty much run the same total distance and cover the same behaviors as a TOTAL pattern BUT: The center point for each gender is different, where the majority of individuals 'clump' is different. And that point also changes somewhat over time, because cultural acceptance of certain behaviors changes over time. (There's been discussion of the terrible influence of mothers on their children, causing terrible and unhealthy social changes in acceptable gender behaviors, since, well, I have references to it from Soranus, and that's 2nd century AD... Also had tons of references to it in the Victorian period... I'd bet that any time of rapid change will have the same 'oh, we can't let the mothers have TOO much say in how the kids are raised, or the genders will look exactly the same, boys and girls just like each other - one age says the girls are too manly, the next says the boys are too girly... funny how things never change...).

It is a fallacy (IMHO) to define one end of both spectrums by one gender, and the other end of both spectrums as the other gender.

Allowing the full range isn't wrong. What appeals to the individual? I prefer my oldest son's definition of 'boy stuff' - anything HE (being a boy, duh) likes, that's boy stuff. Doesn't matter if any other boy on the planet likes it, if he likes it, and he's a boy, it is by default HIS territory. He's pretty much concluded that it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks should be boy or girl specific, as long as the individual in question likes it.

That said (at length, sorry), I did get a chance to look over the book more carefully over the weekend. It does have quite a range of content, so much that I'd guess 50-75% of it will cross over with things 'culture-typical' girls are interested in, and the other 25-50% will probably find a happy home in the hearts and minds of not-so-typical girls (I didn't find ONE topic that at least some girls I know wouldn't be interested in, including the section on 'girls'). But, well, the whole 'dangerous' thing... um. Seriously, this is supposed to be DANGEROUS? Not. Majorly NOT dangerous. So much so that only the truly clueless wouldn't eventually notice that. Fun? Definitely some fun in here. Adventures definitely.

If you have a child who tends toward the physical and needs some help getting excited about reading, maybe this would help, but the sheer lack of depth in it would have been an instant turn-off to me as a child. Even the longer chapters are broken up into such short bits that they're not just 'not too big to be intimidating' they're annoying teasers with no way to go into more depth without going elsewhere.

(I'll admit I LOL at the one section on girls I read, because it is reasonably accurate and definitely age-appropriate without being dismissive. And thinking back to myself at the correlary age, their approach would have worked with me, too.)

I do see one main powerful purpose for this book. As a parent-child springboard, it could really work - if you don't know what the child is really, deep-down interested in, this could be a starting point for the discussions, exploration, and some fun. Further exploration could take the form of more books on knots, or going fishing, or exploring various art media, or targetted trips to the library.

If one takes the title as a way to just get the attention of boys who are already aware of the social pressure to avoid their 'end-of-spectrum range', this may appeal, especially if the family culture is already reacting in response to the physicality of the child. THink 'woo, pressure valve!' There's an attraction to playing against the current pressures, IMHO, in hanging onto what was 'right' when we were kids. The whole victorian feel of the book is a straight on play into that mindset, though obviously it won't appeal JUST to those who are pining for a golden age that never existed. In that sense, the use of the word Dangerous might be useful.

I'm still not buying the book, though. I gave it a fair shot, and was seriously considering its value. But... I already know what my kids love. We have tons of books on mushing (sled-dog racing), riding, knot-tying, pirates, history, astronomy, gems and jewels, fantasy, family, cute little animals, magic, and so forth. All the kids are into reading (though only one can read yet, books are perused every day in some way.) And the physicality already has plenty of outlet... We spent much of the weekend watching (and occasionally helping) the kids make a square-rigged pirate ship out of sticks, string, duct tape, and a large cardboard box, complete with working rudder and a ton of rigging. We concluded sunday afternoon with my oldest proudly showing me that he had mastered the Clove Hitch (Yay for Klutz books! very clear instruction on the knots for while he was practicing on his own). We also practiced housekeeping skills, and time management, and how to make amends. So I don't think I really need any jumping off points for adventures, my kids provide those all by themselves. I'll just go back to READING MY CHILD instead of the books, and think I'll do just fine. Full range of *their* normal accepted.

[Al]

The book has an unapologetic Anglo/American center which I find interesting but the English side comes through much stronger. An American editor they would have caught the error in the first line of the Baseball MVP awards table on page 50 (Philadelphia is in the National League, Minnesota in the American.)

[dan]

I fear for your children, most of you. First, that many of you feel threatened by the concept of boys as, well, boys sans Ritalin; and that such a potent (and cool!) book generates discussion worthy of an MLA conference. It's like we're all acculturated (sp?) to be a cross between ninnies and lawyers, parsing things out so as to be so "inclusive" that they're rendered meaningless.

"Oh, you know, only 87.3 percent of boys actually enjoy reading about this material, and 38.5 percent of girls also will read this - despite its overtly sexist, corporate marketing - and we wouldn't want to alienate them. Girls are powerful, strong young womyn! ..."

Yeah. This is a book. For boys. It's splendid and I've bought copies to give my nephews when they're old enough to read. I've bought a third copy for my daughter, who is nearly of age to appreciate these things - if she cares to. "Here you go, sweetheart. The title says it's 'For Boys', but there's much in here you might like, too. See what you think."

And, voila! No issues to wring one's hands over.

Sheesh. Look what this nonsense has reduced me - and most of you - to. We need to be outside playing with our kids.

[karla]

I would have to say that everyone (including me)is spending way too much time caring about if the book is geared towards boys or not. who cares? if you have boys, read it to them. if you have girls, the author did not create some kind of special curse on the readers if the reader is a girl. read it to the girls too.

[Kiki]

There is a book titled "The Daring Book for Girls" also.

Girls and boys are different and were created that way on purpose to complete each other. It's sad that our society does not want to accept that. Instead we have insisted that women become more masculine and men more feminine leading to this blurred, gender neutral existence. I'm not suggesting that women don't enjoy hiking and men don't enjoy cooking. I am however suggesting that maybe they enjoy the same things but in different ways and for different reasons. That said, why shouldn't there be a book aimed at boys that will relate to them in their way and likewise for girls?

I assume everyone posting not only has an opinion but is also open to exploring other views. If so, I recommend you read a book titled "Love and Respect" by Dr. Emmerson Eggerichs. It is from a Christian author but it by no means is relative to Christians only. It explores the differences in men and women and attempts to help the two meet in the middle without having one gender transform into the other. Much love to you all.

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[Imee Baronda]

Girls...can't stop their self to react on the title :) Go girls! What they do...Girls can do...",)

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