The Dangerous Book For Boys By Hal Iggulden

Figure 8 Knot
Sheet Bend Knot

The Battle of Waterloo

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: Its 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 weve become aware that the whole health and safety overprotective culture isnt 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–theyll take worse risks on their own. If we do away with challenging playgrounds and cancel school trips for fear of being sued, we dont end up with safer boys–we end up with them walking on train tracks. In the long run, its not safe at all to keep our boys in the house with a Playstation. Its 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. Its hard-wired. Remove any opportunity to test his courage and theyll 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 wont win–and your children wont be hurt. Relax. It wont be you.

I think thats the core of the books success. It isnt just a collection of things to do. The heroic stories alone are something we havent had for too long. It isnt 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 isnt a bad place to start.

As for knockoff books–great. Theyll give my son something to read that doesnt 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 made some changes for the U.S. edition, and I for one am sorry that you have removed the section on conkers, if only because its such a lovely and mysterious word. What are (or what is) conkers?

Iggulden: Horse chestnuts strung on a shoelace and knocked against one another until they shatter. In the entire history of the world, no one has ever been hurt by a conker, but its still been banned by some British schools, just in case. Another school banned paper airplanes. Honestly, its enough to make you weep, if I did that sort of thing, which I try not to. Reading Jane Austen is still allowed, however.

Amazon.com: What knowledge did you decide was important to add for American boys? I notice in both editions you have an excellent and useful section on table football, as played with coins. Is paper football strictly an American pastime? Im not sure I could have gotten through the fourth grade without it.

Iggulden: I like knowing the details of battles, so Gettysburg and the Alamo had to go in, along with the Gettysburg address, stickball, state capitals, U.S. mountains, American trees, insects, U.S. historical timelines, and a lot of others. Navajo code talkers of WWII is a great chapter. It probably helps that I am a huge fan of America. It was only while rewriting for the U.S. that I realized how many positive references there already are. You have NASA and NASA trumps almost anything.

As for paper football, ever since I thought of putting the book together, people keep saying things like You have rockets in there, yes? Everyone loves rockets! Paper football is the first American one, but there will be many others. No book in the world is long enough to put them all in–unless we do a sequel, of course.

Amazon.com: Do you think The Dangerous Book for Boys is being read by actual boys, or only by nostalgic adults? Have you seen boys getting up from their Xboxes to go outside and perform first aid or tan animal skins or build go-carts?

Iggulden: Ive had a lot of emails and letters from boys who loved the book–as well as fathers. Ive had responses from kids as young as ten and an old man of 87, who pointed out a problem with the shadow stick that weve since changed. The thing to remember is that we may be older and more cynical every year, but boys simply arent. If they are given the chance to make a go-cart with their dad, they jump at it. Mine did. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to know the book is being used with fathers and sons together, trying things out. Nothing is more valuable to a boy than time with his dad, learning something fun–or something difficult. Thats part of the attitude too. If its hard, you dont make it easy, you grab it by the throat and hang on for as long as it takes.

The book is often bought by fathers, of course. Their sons dont know Scott of the Antarctic is a great adventure story. How could they if it isnt taught any more? Good, heroic stories dont appear much in modern school curriculums–and then we wonder why boys dont seem interested.

Amazon.com: And finally, on to the important questions: Should Pluto still be a planet? And what was the best dinosaur?

Iggulden: Pluto is a planet. I know

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Review Dangerous Boys - Great Book
Great book for a 12 year old boy scout with imagination. My nephew loves to figure out how stuff works and this is perfect.

received product quickly~
We received the book right away and it was in great condition. Good value for the money.

Fantastic Easter Gift!
We gave this to our 8 year old son for Easter, in leiu of a bunch of candy, and he has yet to put it down! He is absolutely enthralled, and has taught us a few things. Outstanding gift for a young man.

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Tibet Through The Red Box (Caldecott Honor Book) By Peter Sis

Customer Reviews & Opinions

work of art
promoted as a children’s book, but truly a work of art for all to appreciate also informative for children

wonderful
I originally bought the bought mainly because of its Asian theme, a subject my younger child is currently fascinated with. However, what was most compelling about it was not the subject but the perspective. It is through those Czechoslovakian eyes that the cultural experience became special: my son was not merely looking at Tibet from his perspective but was at the same time looking at a certain Czechoslovakia through Tibet’s mirror.

Magical Journey
I came upon this book accidentally while working in a public library. It is undoubtedly the best children’s book for adults that I have ever read! It is my most favored possession and I read it 3 or 4 times a year and never cease to be inspired by it anew. Visually stunning with a magical story line that will leave you believing in miracles. Buy It!!!

Beautiful Book
I first encountered this book in my elementary school library and have since looked it up again. At the time it struck me as magical and wonderfully illustrated, and now (years later) I can appreciate its historical signifigance as well as its obvious visual appeal

(A) Free Tibet
I once had the great good fortune of seeing Peter Sis speak before a large audience of New York City Public Librarians. Charming, blessed with an uncommon eloquence, and funny as well Sis spoke of his work over the last few decades. From this speech I learned that Sis designed the poster for the movie of “Amadeus”, that he was originally from Prague, and that one of his best works was something called, “Tibet: Through the Red Box”. I was intrigued, but months passed and I filed away “Tibet” into my To-Be-Read pile of picture books. It was only with my steady reading of every single Caldecott Honor (of which “Tibet” won one in 1999) that I at last came to the book itself. I expected a title that was some sort of early-reader-this-is-what-Tibet-is kind of a thing. I had apparently forgotten that this was the man who brought us that remarkable Charles Darwin biography, “Tree of Life”. “Tibet: Through the Red Box” is no mere picture book. It’s a personal history and unreliable memory combined into the ultimate tribute to the author’s father.

In 1994 Peter Sis received a note from his father that said merely, “The Red Box is now yours”. Rushing home, Sis found the box in question and opened it to reveal a diary kept by his father of his time in Tibet in the mid-1950s. Sis the elder was a documentary filmmaker, and as such he was sent by the army film unit to China to make and teach filmmaking. The job was supposed to be about the Chinese highway currently being built in the Himalayas that would open Tibet up to the rest of the world. While there, Sis was separated from his project and explored the world of Tibet deeper than (he suspected) any Czech citizen before him. In this book, Peter Sis takes sections from this diary and illustrates them with his signature dotty style. Interspersed with his father’s written recollections, Peter includes his own childhood memories of the fantastical elements of the trip his father would tell him. There were Yetis that cared for him while sick, and lakes filled with fish that had human faces. The final meeting with the Boy-God-King, the Dali Lama himself, is expressed with riveting finesse.

Back we go to that old question that comes up whenever a picture book doesn’t fall strictly into a set category: Is it a book for adults or for kids? Which is to say, will kids want to read it, or get anything out of it if they do? And the answer, of course, isn’t all that simple. As many of the reviews for this book already state, there are multiple uses for this title. Readers vary from reluctant teens to awe-struck ten-year-olds. What I’ve always loved about Sis’s work is his ability to write something meaningful for people of all ages. So on the one hand you have a fun story about a father seeing fantastical things (it’s no coincidence that Sis chooses to include a quote about Marco Polo at the end) and on the other hand you’ve a complex story of a son trying to figure out who his father is and at what price a world can be utterly destroyed.

When I saw Sis speak, he made a self-deprecating statement that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Sis said that when he was first trying to get jobs, he though the best way to distinguish himself from everyone else was to draw using millions of tiny dots. In retrospect, he realized this wasn’t such a bright idea. For while the dot style was unique and much sought after, it meant he had to spend countless hours dotting and redotting his books. “Tibet” is dot-o-licious, this is true. And while not quite as insanely detailed as the aforementioned, “Tree of Life”, it still an eye-popping wonder. My favorite section however, chronicled the father’s trip through the magic palace of Potala, where every room is different. There’s a red room that is “sunrise and sunset, heart of time” and a green room that is “square and circular, ear of earth”. At this point the book begins to resemble nothing so much as the book, “Maze” by Christopher Manson. If you’re a fan of crazy rooms leading nowhere at all, check out that book as well.

Don’t pick up “Tibet: Through the Red Box” if you’re looking for some light picture book fare. That is the number one wrong way to approach this kind of material. Instead, fix yourself a hot cup of tea, snuggle on a comfy couch with a child or adult that you love, and page through the remarkable and touching story of one man’s ode to his father. We should all be so lucky to have done so much, lived so well, and be remembered in such an evocative way.

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Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary By Dk Publishing

Why Buy A Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary By Dk Publishing?
In true DK style, LEGO® Star Wars ™: The Visual Dictionary elucidates, illuminates, and
excites even the most discerning LEGO Group, Star Wars™, and minifigure fans around the
world.. Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and more are brought to life with
dozens of little-known facts and hundreds of photos, as are accessories, vehicles, weapons,
and even the Death Star! Learn about the history, manufacture, and construction of the
minifigures of the Star Wars galaxy, and come away a LEGO® Jedi Master.

LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Brick configuration and the Minifigure are
trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2009 The LEGO Group. © 2009
Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Production by Dorling
Kindersley under license from the LEGO Group.

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The House Of The Scorpion By Nancy Farmer

Nancy Farmer, a two-time Newbery honoree, surpasses even her marvelous novel, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm in the breathless action and fascinating characters of The House of the Scorpion. Readers will be reminded of Orson Scott Cards Ender in Matts persistence and courage in the face of a world that intends to use him for its own purposes, and of Louis Sachars Holes in the camaraderie of imprisoned boys and the layers of meaning embedded in this irresistibly compelling story. (Ages 12 and older) –Patty Campbell

Customer Reviews & Opinions

The House of The Scorpion by Nancy Farmer Science Fiction
_ In Opium a land of poppy fields between America and modern day Mexico Matt Alacran is a normal young boy; at least that’s what he thinks. When he met El Patron, a 140-year-old man, everything changed. His mansion was decorated exquisitely so you could tell that he is a very rich and powerful man. There are scorpions, the symbol of his family, around the house. What El Patron actually did that made him so wealthy, Matt did not know. He has a very intense intimidating and suspicious manner. Matt was now told that he was not human. That he was El Patrons clone.

_ Everyone had to act nice to him when El Patron is around, however when El Patron isn’t around his family and the servants still avoided or ignored Matt because clones in the society were thought as inhuman beasts and were treated like livestock. He had no company until a girl named Maria visited, who was about his age. She becomes one of Matt’s only friends, and maybe more. Tom, one of El Patron’s great grandkids sets his eyes on Maria, which Matt does not like one bit. Tom is truly a heartless little devil, always getting into trouble. The “filthy little pustule” according to Tam Lin, is always trying to hurt or tease Matt. Tam Lin is one of El Patrons bodyguards that he leaves to watch out for Matt when he is gone. Tam Lin teaches Matt about survival and many other things about the Alacran family. He tells him many secrets and things that he had not known.

_ This book opens secret passageways and many questions about what will happen next. It will take you to a future setting where people can be turned into zombie like slaves called eijits. This is a great story that I enjoyed greatly to read. It is an epic story of betrayal, friendship, and survival. I could find myself not being able to stop turning the pages, always wondering what was going to be the next one. If you haven’t read this great novel do and find out how Matt fights to survive from being butchered, make a quick escape over rocky and sweltering terrain, and find his way back to his Maria. This book will keep you interested till you read the very last word.

Recommended for middle schoolers through adults (a review of the audiobook)
Limiting this book to a young adult audience is a disservice to the book and to the themes it brings up. This would be a fantastic book for an adult discussion group - there are so many themes and controversial topics that a group could discuss for hours and hours.

That being said, I nearly quit listening to this audiobook after the first hour. It was sooooo slow to get started. On top of that, it was often dark and opressive. However, after the character Tam Lin comes in to the story the whole book changes and you would have had to fight me to get me to give the book up. By the time the end came around I felt like I had lived a life with Mateo and was thoroughly satisfied.

So, what kind of themes are there? Well, this book, in my opinion, points out the dangers that many of the more Conservative thinkers warn us about with our current policies towards bio-technology and, to a lesser extent, immigration.

The future, as portrayed in “The House of the Scorpion” is often a dark place with clones created solely to provide body parts for their originals and “eejits” - people with computer chips inserted into their brains to make them completely docile and the perfect slaves who will literally do the task they’re assigned to do until they are told to stop (or die). The United States is no longer the world’s only superpower and there is a new country between Mexico (now called Aztlan) and the USA. It is called “Opium”. Opium serves as a buffer between Aztlan and the U.S. that is run by a cartel of drug lords with drug plantations worked by eejits, most of whom are illegal aliens from the U.S. or Mexico who were captured and enslaved (the parallels with the American underground labor force comprised of illegal immigrants can be easily made).

Aztlan has become a country obsessed by economic success and the duty to the larger society as a whole. The goal there seems to be the bee hive - all workers know their place and sacrifice for the good of the society. The mantra is the “5 principles of Good Citizenship” and the “4 Attitudes Leading to Right-Mindfulness.” The success of the state is paramount over the interests of any individual.

Grand themes run throughout the book such as:

-What does it mean to be human?

-Who is accorded human rights?

-What are the limits of cloning? Do we clone people just to use them for parts? Do we clone fetuses just to use their parts (as happens in the book)?

-The rights of the individual vs. the demands of the state? Where are the boundaries or should there be any? Is the individual entirely free? Can the state demand everything of the individual? Is there a difference between an eejit and an Aztlanian worker bee?

The audiobook lasts 12.5 hours and is read brilliantly by Robert Ramirez. I’m glad I stuck through the initial slow parts - I was thoroughly rewarded.

A Sopisticated and Frightening Possible Future
Nancy Farmer is a wonderful writer; her splendidly genre-blending funny and futuristic adventure story The Ear, the Eye and the Arm is a perennial favorite of mine and my children, and I have gone out of my way to read all the other books she has written, with no disappointments. But she has grown enormously! In addition to being a compulsive page-turner, “The House of the Scorpion” is sophisticated prose. It is a wonderfully complex, rich and believable tale, with such real characters that they seem to step off the pages and tell their own separate stories, and a scarily possible future. It is as much beyond The Ear, the Eye and the Arm as that is in turn beyond her first book, The Warm Place.

This book should not be billed as a YA story. Yes, it is about a boy and his journey from youth into adulthood. Yes, it has many action adventures. But this is the story of a dark and disturbing possible future; it is speculative fiction that holds its own with the best. It has a touch of science fiction, but deals more with a world that has gone through some ugly and frighteningly possible social changes. At the same time, it is a wonderful human drama.

This is a piece of literature that should be read by any apocalypse fiction reader, or any science fiction readers that are interested in social developments enabled by science. I would put in on a level with David Brin’s “The Postman”, or Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Red Mars” trilogy. I cannot recommend it highly enough. But it is not really for kids.

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An American Plague: The True And Terrifying Story Of The Yellow Fever Epidemic Of 1793 (Newbery Honor Book) By Jim Murphy