The Dangerous Book For Boys - Campaign Launch
“In this age of video games and cell phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree houses, and stories of incredible courage. The one thing that we always say about childhood is that we seemed to have more time back then. This book will help you recapture those Sunday afternoons and long summers - because they’re still long if you know how to look at them.”
Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, “The Dangerous Book For Boys”
From the moment this book arrived in our mailbox, my husband and I have been reading and reminiscing. Climbing trees, splashing through creeks, catching toads and crayfish…those were good times. Dirty, rough, and a little bit dangerous.
“The Dangerous Book For Boys” is a classic guide to the adventures of childhood, with stories and how-to’s that will not only amuse and educate kids, but will occupy a special place in their hearts and someday be shared with their own children. As the authors wryly admit, they “would have given away the cat to get this book when they were young.”
Although it’s chock-full of information that has typically been the province of men and boys, it’s a great read for women and girls as well. As one of our reviewers commented in an e-mail to us: “The gender exclusiveness of it didn’t bother me at all…but then I have a son. And I was a girl raised on a ranch with brothers and boy cousins, was right there in the midst of it all every muddy, knee-scraped day, and I can’t imagine that the gender determination would have bothered me then.”
Fifteen of our bloggers received a copy of this fantastic book - please check out their individual reviews according to the schedule below:
Monday 4/30 - Toddler Planet
Tuesday 5/1 - FishyGirl
Wednesday 5/2 - Radioactive Girl
Thursday 5/3 - Sarah’s Dandelions
Friday 5/4 - Soul Gardening
Monday 5/7 - Karianna
Tuesday 5/8 - Midwestern Mommy
Wednesday 5/9 - Ruth Dynamite and Mid-Campaign Post on PBN
Thursday 5/10 - Little Bird Reviews
Friday 5/11 - Troll Baby
Monday 5/14 - Plain Jane Mom
Tuesday 5/15 - Bananas and Toddlers
Wednesday 5/16 - The Domestic Diva
Thursday 5/17 - Mother Bumper
Friday 5/18 - Cool Stuff Con Queso
Tuesday 5/22 - Round-Up Review on PBN
In the meantime, get inspired to get outside by flipping through the book and watching the video.
Finally, we’ve got a tremendous giveaway in honor of this book and its back-to-basics message: A Vector 22 two-man tent from The North Face! Share your own childhood adventure stories in the comments of this post or the upcoming mid-campaign post, and you’ll be entered to win! Winner to be announced in our round-up review on May 22.
We would love the tent to use when we take out boys camping! One rather adventurous story from my childhood is my Dad, younger brother and I hiking the Alps when I was about 12. The trail was slowly getting more and more difficult and the only equipment we had were our tennis shoes. My Dad was all for pressing on and making a few moves that put us at risk of tumbling down a few hundred feet into a glaciar. Finally I said we had to turn around, it was just too dangerous. On the way back we got strange looks from hikers who had professional-grade hiking equipment, as in “What were two kids doing way up here?!”
[...] from our special Solar System Week here at Toddler Planet. I was asked a few weeks ago by the Parent Bloggers Network to review The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, and I’m up first on [...]
[...] from our special Solar System Week here at Toddler Planet. I was asked a few weeks ago by the Parent Bloggers Network to review The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, and I’m up first on [...]
One of my favorite memories as a boy was going to a Giants game with my Dad at Candlestick Park. We watched Mayes, McCovey, Bonds, etc., and ate cold fried chicken my Mom had made the previous night. What fun days those were!
My dad worked at night six days a week so we didn’t spend a lot of time together. But I remember one summer, my dad, brother, and I got to stay up on my dad’s nights off and then fall asleep in the living room. Not the kind of adventure the Danger book stands for, but it was the best my dad could do.
I’ve got a son that would love a tent. He’s got to go camping once and that was with The Young Marines, but he’d really like to go camping with his dad. He could really use this and of course if he got it he’d have to share with his sisters. I use to camp all the time growing up, kind of sad that he hasn’t went once with us yet.
The childhood memory that sticks out most for me was after a massive snow storm, my dad helped me build an igloo in our backyard. It was awesome. That thing lasted for weeks and I had countless snow ball fights. Nowadays, we rarely get heavy snow fall where I live. But last winter I was able to make a small igloo for my four boys and they went nuts over it. I hope that will stick in their memories for years to come.
I actually have never been camping. My parents were kind of rabidly non-outdoorsy. My husband, on the other hand, practically grew up in the woods. Our three year old seems to take after her dad in the nature loving realm, so I think a tent is a good bet for our future…
I actually blogged a few years ago about how much I loved camping, fishing & all things outdoorsy when I was young. I had parents that encouraged and cultivated all things “nature”, but somewhere along the way, I lost that. But now, having a daughter myself, I find it’s becoming more and more important to me that she have a connection to our planet the way I did when I was young. Thanks for bringing up some great memories for me!
http://www.thesaraheffect.org/2005/06/09/in-a-cabin-in-the-woods/
I spent most of my childhood hanging out with my neighbor. He and I spent hours creating our own games, trapsing through neighborhood yards and exploring the woods behind the park up the street. One of our favorite places was a rocky ditch across the street from his house where we build dams and watched the rush of water after a storm.
This sounds like the book for us! Three boys under three.. now if someone can invent a tent with an alarm so that if my boys wake up before me and decide to venture out, I can be warned!
My 3 sisters and I were big tomboys growing up. Dad wanted boys so badly and ended up with 4 girls. We loved to get muddy. We helped Dad fix cars and build things. We caught frogs and bugs and crawdads. We fished and learned how to call turkeys with Dad’s calls. We played cowboys (Jesse James) and helped on our small farm. I miss those days!
I have 2 boys myself now and my 9 year-old would LOVE this book!
After reading Mother Bumper’s review, I think this isn’t just for boys, but for all kids, at least most of it is.