When I was a kid my Dad bought me The Boy Scout Handbook. It was full of cool tips and information, but there was way too much emphasis on “being clean.” Now I understand what that was about, and I’m not interested in passing that book down to my kids.

But I’m definitly not crying salty tears, because now there’s a new book that is several orders of magnitude better: The Dangerous Book for Boys. I love it and so does Mr. Plain! If you have a short attention span just skip reading the rest of the review and buy the book. If you want details, however, read on.

In a closet at my grandparents house was a stack of ancient hardcover kids “How To” books. They contained all sorts of ideas for toys to build, and games to play as well as great stories. The only problem was that since the books were so old, I never had any of the weird supplies the projects required. The Dangerous Book for Boys takes the best of those books and distills it into one easy to use reference book that kids can use today.

Everything from “Building a Tree House” to “A Brief History of Artillery” is here. The basics of first aid, how to play stickball, selections from Shakespeare, juggling, making marbled paper, dog tricks, wrapping a package with no tape, coin tricks, learning grammar, the history of famous battles, how to make fireproof cloth, building a go-cart, and on and on!

The scope of this book is amazing, and the authors are never condescending. Of course they tell the kids when they’re going to need the help of an adult or when something isn’t safe to do alone, but for the most part kids are able to enjoy this book on their own if they want to.

This book is empowering. It is also fun, educational, exciting, silly, serious, and most of all: essential. I would have loved a copy when I was a kid. This first copy will go to Mike after he masters reading, but I suspect I’ll be getting copies for Robbie and Chip soon enough.

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