Frauenfelder: “Dangerous Book for Boys” Not All That Dangerous
Published by Joel May 10th, 2007 in Books, DIY, Family. Share This
Good on Mark Frauenfelder for telling me something I wanted to know: that the “Dangerous Book for Boys” by Conn and Hal Iggulden is actually all that dangerous. (Not a surprise in our litigious society, but I had held out hope since the book original ran in the UK, where every boy at 13 is required to snort heroin off a copy of the Magna Carta.)
Even better, Mark has assembled a list of older project books for boys going back over 100 years that actually are sort of dangerous, or at least have projects with an element of risk involved. Trust me, boys are going to do two things when they’re at an impressionable age: not read books they don’t have to and fill up plastic lighter fluid containers with gasoline and kick them across the yard to leave an impossible-to-cover track of scorched earth in the backyard. Nobody should be afraid of a book explaining the fun of, say, explosions. Boys already know.
Dangerous Books for Boys [Boing Boing]
Once again, I think I’ve just been frightened away from the thought of ever having children.
I got this book for Christmas from my sister. Its a fun read. however it would have been an even better read if I had been 8.
“and fill up plastic lighter fluid containers with gasoline and kick them across the yard to leave an impossible-to-cover track of scorched earth in the backyard”
Don’t forget about digging holes around the base of a tree under the roots and filling it with gasoline then lighting it. Thank God wood isn’t flammable! That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. A 15 foot stream of fire, and a shoe on fire, good times, good times. At least the turkey burgers didn’t get burned!
Of course maybe roof wrestling wasn’t all that smart either.
I picked this book up at B&N on a visit to my sisters in CT. My son is turning 6 in September so he’s not ready for it yet, BUT…..
Here’s comes 7…maybe 8.
This thing is better than my old Boy Scout handbook, by a long sight and I read that scout handbook cover to cover at least 100 times!
Another great book for boys that my son and I found is Bart King’s The Big Book of Boy Stuff. Tons of fun activities, experiments, jokes, info on gross stuff like barfing and burping. My son has about worn his copy out!