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Reader's Paradise

The Dangerous Book...

19 years ago

...but why just for boys? When my DS and DDIL showed me the copy they had purchased for their nephew (my grandson), I was amazed by the variety of items included. How To..., History facts and anecdotes, Poetry, Shakespeare, and on and on. If it gets boys away from the video games for a while, the book is worth its weight in gold. I just wish it had been titled The Dangerous Book for Kids so as not to discourage the girls.

The authors, Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden must have had a ball getting this book together.

Has anyone else here seen a copy? If so, what did you think? The rumor is that it was at first declared "too dangerous" for boys of today. Thus the final choice of title.

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Comments (5)

angelini
19 years ago
I never actually looked through a copy, but they were great Christmas gifts last year. I worked at a book shop and sold a lot of them!

It is annoying that it's a dangerous book for boys, but judging by the cover I thought it was filled with 'old' things that boys did to get into trouble. Girls wouldn't have been included in the dangerous things from too far back. Though, of course, I could be way off there!
woodnymph2_gw
19 years ago
I just read a review of this and it looked interesting. I think the authors make some excellent points about old fashioned life styles and values. But I do think that a similar book should be written for girls. What about all those "Tomboys" out there?
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elliottb
19 years ago
My son received a copy from his grandparents. He's enjoyed it so far and he's done a couple of projects in it.

I've thumbed through the book and it looks like there are some interesting activities. I think the title was to encourage boys to do more of what is traditionally thought of as manly activities and that this might entail more risks than playing video games. When you're doing some kind of experiment, more can go wrong than when you're playing a video game.
cindydavid4
19 years ago
I didn't see the title as 'not for girls' as much as a take on all of the boy science books from the 40s and 50s. A better title would be 'Recollection of a dangerous book for boys'
froniga
Original Author
19 years ago
I just read that a similar book for girls is on the way. It's called The Daring Book for Girls. So I take back my indignation and am just happy that both books will exist to attempt to save our kids from an excess of DVDs, TVs, and VGs, and, yes, the web.

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