Book Review: The Dangerous Book for Boys
This book is more than a field guide, more than a textbook, more than a storybook, more than a collection of facts and quotes. It is certainly all those, among many other things. It is an oddity and a beloved one at that. No matter your age or orientation, you can almost always open it up anywhere and find something you didn’t know before.
Science, soccer, strategies, survivors, secret codes, fossils, girls: it covers it all. Just about everything you find in the book is practical information or, failing that, it is certainly interesting. Co-authored by Conn and Hal Iggulden, The Dangerous Book for Boys serves as a great introduction or reinforcement to basic moral codes.
It is also a fun way of getting a good dose of classical literature into the reader, especially if he is young. Within its pages, the reader is introduced to tidbits of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, and others.
Bearing some resemblance to earlier juvenile-geared books such as Tell Me Why, The Dangerous Book for Boys is not really all that dangerous. It has the title it does in order to attract the eyes of the primary audience: young boys. If the title read something like “The Book of Grammar and History for Boys,” not many kids would open it with anticipation and excitement.
The reader gets plenty of history, but it’s the juicy stories, the ones which build character and give youngsters a glimpse into the real world along with its dangers and momentous achievements. We hear about ancient history, English history, American history; we learn about wars and brave men of survival and exploration, people who were willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice.
We learn about what shaped the U.S. The Ten Commandments are even listed. We see what special codes we might come up with or decipher. We learn about the most infamous pirate flags which terrorized the seas of olden day.
The writers have put together a handy book like no other with graphic illustrations and true stories to reiterate some of them. Interestingly, this is not a novel, but it has inspired the short-lived TV series of the same title which was first released earlier this year. It is an altogether unconventional yet delightful book, and many boys are sure to enjoy it.
