The Dangerous Book for Boys

Today, Spyder and I were wandering in the book section of Sam's Club when I found The Dangerous Book for Boys. I had heard about it a while ago, but I was never able to find a copy in the bookstore to see if it was really something I wanted to buy.

I thumbed through it there at the store, and it didn't take me long to figure out that it was a must-buy. Definitely.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Spyder is (as my mom would say) "All Boy." He likes anything that has to do with weaponry, mess-making, building . . . . The list could go on for hours.

Spyder noticed the book in the cart, and he picked it up immediately. (I think the "dangerous" part had him intrigued.) He started reading it there in the store, and he didn't put it down for the rest of the day.


It covers a range of topics, from history lessons to how to build the perfect paper airplane to talking to girls. (At age 9, Spyder is both intrigued and disgusted by the idea of talking to girls "that way," although the list of dos and don'ts are really just common sense.)

He spent the first part of the day folding that perfect paper airplane, and I have to admit, it's a pretty good design. He was able to get it to fly almost to the end of the yard -- much, much further than he has ever done before.


Last night he told me about the Battle of Waterloo. Today he taught himself how to tie three or four different types of knots. Both subjects came from this book.

The list price is $24.95 (kind of high) but we paid $15 at Sam's, and Amazon currently has it for that price. It's well worth it. The design is perfect for my boy, a stiff cloth hardcover with no dusjacket. It's illustrated throughout, occasionally with color drawings, sometimes with simple sketches.

I almost fussed at him for taking it outside and putting it on the damp grass. But really, it's the type of book that I want him to carry around, to use enough to get fingerprints on the pages and wear the corners of the cover. So instead of fussing, I just picked it up, wiped it off, and moved it to a dry spot.

The Dangerous Book for Boys gets my highest recommendation.