The Dangerous Book for Boys

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Ranked #4,745 in Entertainment, #132,677 overall

Conn and Hal Iggulden

The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is.

In this digital age there is still a place for knots, skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes.

The completely revised American Edition includes:

The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Five Knots Every Boy Should Know, Stickball, Slingshots, Fossils, Building a Treehouse, Making a Bow and Arrow, Fishing (revised with US Fish), Timers and Tripwires, Baseball's "Most Valuable Players", Famous Battles-Including Lexington and Concord, The Alamo, and Gettysburg, Spies-Codes and Ciphers, Making a Go-Cart, Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary,Girls, Cloud Formations, The States of the U.S., Mountains of the U.S., Navigation, The Declaration of Independence, Skimming Stones, Making a Periscope, The Ten Commandments, Common US Trees and Timeline of American History

Dangerous Book for Boys Part Deux

In this digital age there is still a place for knots, skipping stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. Brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden have assembled a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun---building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes. Visit the website http://dangerousbookforboys.com/

curated content from YouTube

Take Back Sunday Afternoon

The Dangerous Book for Boys

by: Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden

If only..., May 2, 2007
Reviewer: Noble M. Smith (WA, USA)
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.

Amazon Price: $17.79 (as of 12/25/2009)

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Amazon.com Interview With Conn Iggulden

Questions for Conn Iggulden

Conn and Hal Iggulden are two brothers who have not forgotten what it was like to be boys. Conn taught for many years before becoming one of the most admired and popular young historical novelists with his Emperor series, based on the life of Julius Caesar, and his newly embarked series on Genghis Khan, while Hal is a theater director. We asked Conn about their collaboration.

Amazon.com: It's difficult to describe what a phenomenon The Dangerous Book for Boys was in the UK last year. When I would check the bestseller list on our sister site, Amazon.co.uk, there would be, along with your book, which spent much of the year at the top of the list, a half-dozen apparent knockoff books of similar boy knowledge. Clearly, you tapped into something big. What do you think it was?

Iggulden: In a word, fathers. I am one myself and I think we've become aware that the whole "health and safety" overprotective culture isn't doing our sons any favors. Boys need to learn about risk. They need to fall off things occasionally, or--and this is the important bit--they'll take worse risks on their own. If we do away with challenging playgrounds and cancel school trips for fear of being sued, we don't end up with safer boys--we end up with them walking on train tracks. In the long run, it's not safe at all to keep our boys in the house with a Playstation. It's not good for their health or their safety.

You only have to push a boy on a swing to see how much enjoys the thrill of danger. It's hard-wired. Remove any opportunity to test his courage and they'll find ways to test themselves that will be seriously dangerous for everyone around them. I think of it like playing the lottery--someone has to say "Look, you won't win--and your children won't be hurt. Relax. It won't be you."

I think that's the core of the book's success. It isn't just a collection of things to do. The heroic stories alone are something we haven't had for too long. It isn't about climbing Everest, but it is an attitude, a philosophy for fathers and sons. Our institutions are too wrapped up in terror over being sued--so we have to do things with them ourselves. This book isn't a bad place to start.

As for knockoff books--great. They'll give my son something to read that doesn't involve him learning a dull moral lesson of some kind--just enjoying an adventure or learning skills and crafts so that he has a feeling of competence and confidence--just as we have.

Amazon.com: You m