“The Dangerous Book For Boys” by Conn and Hal Iggulden
May 7 - May 18
Over the next two weeks, MotherTalk bloggers will be talking about the runaway hit book by Conn and Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book For Boys. With a fantastic website, incredible video trailers, an awesome contest, and even an appearance on The Colbert Report, the book is enjoying tremendous success. But what do our bloggers think? Check in over the next two weeks to get the scoop. (And stay tuned on May 18 for Dangerous Friday!)
May 7: Stacey at Fertile Ground was barely able to wrest the book away from her husband and sons to take a crack at it herself. The verdict? “I am 100% sure that the words “I’m bored” shall never leave the lips of a member of Team Oster ever again.” And Asha at Parent Hacks calls the book “a boy’s field manual to a summer (or a lifetime) of adventure and curiosity.” She also posts about the book over at Wired.com’s Geek Dad and writes, “I’m thoroughly entranced by its premise and promise: that there exists an essential package of skills and knowledge each boy should master. In so doing, he unlocks the potential for a life of exploration and adventure.”
May 8: Lynn at The New Homemaker enlists the help of actual boys to review the book, and it’s met with unqualified raves. From 13-year-old Simon: “The Dangerous Book . . . encompasses all of the things that kids don’t think about much these days, like semaphore flags, building a go-cart, famous battles, and things like that. It’s full of experiments, projects, and random facts. If you open it up to any page, you’ll probably have learned something when you close it.” And 11-year-old Jonah says the book “has all the things that an energetic boy would want. it shows all kinds of things like how to make a tree house, the rules of soccer, and how to make a bow and arrow [see what I mean?].” Katie Allison Granju “gushed” about the book when she first got it, and now that she’s had a chance to test it out with her kids (boys ages 15 and 9, and an 11-year-old daughter), the gushing is justified in her most recent post (which she wrote after putting her younger son to bed reading the story of Robert Falcon Scott from the Dangerous book). Overall, Katie says the book will be her “staple gift for all little boys, as well as baby showers where boys are expected. An instant classic.”
May 9: Bethany reads the book for her son, but finds herself remembering all of the cool and wonderful things she did with her Dad as a girl: “And the more I leafed through the book . . . I realized what my Dad gave me. A sense of what it means to be a boy. . . .That is the one thing I want you to take away from this review: this book can do the very same thing for you. It will bring back the memories of your childhood. Or give you memories and factoids to share with your own kids.” She goes on to say: “This book is the BOY BIBLE. And if I can say so myself the KID BIBLE.” Over at Postcards from the Mothership, Dani finds the book “gorgeous” and describes it as “How to be Huck Finn in the 21st century” and “not exactly a manual on how to be a boy, but rather an encyclopedia to satisfy the curiosity of the boy within all of us.” She ends the review with a challenge to her “inner 12-year-old boy” who has always wanted to learn how to juggle, writing, “Right there on page 89, there’s a fully illustrated set of instructions on how to juggle. It’s high time I learned.”
May 10: Kim at Hormone-Colored Days barely got a chance to dip into the book herself, as it was quickly overtaken by the boys in her house (ages 7, 9, and almost 40), but what she saw when she got her hands on it, she loved. She says, “The Dangerous Book for Boys makes a great gift for the 8-10 year old set and an equally thoughtful gift for parents of boys. My boys have a month between the end of camp and the beginning of school (!!!) and I predict this book will be a handy companion for those days.” Jenn at Jenn’s Journal writes, “This book is SO COOL. For one it just looks neat, like something some kid in a movie finds in an attic somewhere and goes off to have wacky adventures. It’s a how-to manual to be a boy. . . . I have a feeling this book is going to get quite a bit of use. . . . Every time I pick it up, I get sucked into it reading about pirates and the seven wonders of the world.”
May 11: Devra at Parentopia gets some help with the book review from her 11-year-old son, who approves of the book’s accuracy when it comes to rules of soccer, as well as the inclusion of sunflowers, though he wishes there were more pages on spiders and insects (because, as he put it, “there are more insects in the world than people by a ton.”) Devra says the book “utterly and completely energizes the reader. It is easy to keep reading and reading all the way to the end.” Lindsay at Suburban Turmoil says, “Okay. This is seriously the best book I’ve ever gotten to review and people, I get a lot of books.” Her joy was short-lived, however, when the book was kidnapped by her husband. To make him pay, she asked him for a review. His take: “I think it’s a fantastic book! Where was this book when I was ten years old? But it’s okay, I’ll take it now. Most people don’t realize that boys spend hours on these topics- tying knots, how to hold a sword at a sword fight… It’s just a great collection of tips on how to live a life of high adventure.”
May 14: Kris at WonderMom loves the book, and plans to read it so that she can impress the males in her her house with her excellent knowledge. She says, “It will likely be a few years before my five- and six-year-old boys can read this book, so there’s time for me to act like I ‘just knew how’ to make a periscope and a simple elecromagnet.” Lilian at Mama(e) in Translation finds the book reminding her of her tomboyish childhood in the countryside and writes, “The history, grammar, extraordinary history sections were just amazing! And the fact that the book includes Shakespeare quotes, famous poems, and list of books to read — yay! — these just warmed my literary inclined heart :).”
May 15: Tertia adores the book (”This book made me smile. It is the sweetest, warmest, most absolutely Serious and Important thing I’ve seen for a while.”), and starts quite a kerfluffle in the comments section over the mini-rant at the end of her post. (And who doesn’t love a good kerfluffle?) Amanda at A Moms Review reports that her six-year-old son is already loving the book and says, “This book will be perfect for summertime explorations around our home, and for when our son says he doesn’t have anything to do. The Dangerous Book for Boys is the kind of book you want to hold on to and pass along to the next generation.”
May 16: Nicole at Much More Than A Mom says: “This is an awesome book. If there are boys on your gift list who don’t have it, buy it. I happen to think new dads are left out of the whole birth-gift scenario and this would be a fab book to present to a new father of a son. It’s like you’re saying Congratulations! Have fun helping your kid experience real life. He may break a few bones and he’ll definitely get bruises, but hey - we’re making men here!” Gregg at Family Man says fear not! “In an age of computer games and mind-numbing TV, this book encourages boys to get out there and sample life, which makes it a marvelous gift for boys and for fathers who want to show more of the world to their kids.”
May 17: Khatina at The Life and Times of This New Mommy writes: “I cannot wait to present my sons with this guide. In a time where so many of our children want to spend their free time in front of something electronic, this book talks about the good stuff. The sorts of real things that warm and wonderful childhood memories are made of. . . . The only thing I can hope for now is that by the time my boys are old enough to become true partners in crime, there is a second or even third volume of this book on the shelves.” Still to come: a post from Mir at Woulda Coulda Shoulda.
May 18: The book is a big hit at CrazyMomCat’s house, and she says: “Whether you have a wild and woolly boy, a giggling girl or two, or only grown ups in your house, The Dangerous Book for Boys reminds us all how very important it is to take a walk on the wild side of fun every now and then, and not be afraid to ask the whys of life. Now that’s something that even this MomCat can appreciate!” And Jen at MUBAR has a fantastic take on the book, writing about the differences between what appeals to girls and what appeals to boys. “Try as I might to cozy up to this book, I can’t. For every cool thing I want to try like learning to create that gorgeous marble paper you see in Florentine stationery and old books, there is something equally off-putting such as Hunting and Cooking a Rabbit (when I was 8, the mere suggestion of this would have sent me into tears as I was an animal lover and a card-carrying member of Greenpeace — perhaps for this very reason the author suggests that all boys carry a handkerchief as part of their essential gear so they can ‘offer it to a girl when she cries’). But I think that me not getting it is exactly the point. The Iggulden Brothers (I have no idea what they look like but I envision Luke and Owen Wilson in Bottle Rocket) have built a clubhouse for that brief period of childhood between gymboree and school dances when there are ‘No Girls Allowed.’ ”
