The Double Dangerous Book for Boys

by Conn, Arthur & Cameron Iggulden

You’re stuck between seasons.

Football is over, baseball hasn’t started. Halloween’s done, it’s not yet Thanksgiving, and Christmas is a lifetime away. Can this time of year possibly be any more boring? You need excitement. You need adventure! You need “The Double Dangerous Book for Boys” by Conn, Arthur & Cameron Iggulden.

So, what are you going to do this weekend once you’ve run out of fun?  How about making more fun with the things in this book?  Learning to pick locks, for example, might be a good time and it surely could be useful someday. It’s one of the first few things you’ll find.

Or let’s say you have to stay indoors. With this book, you can help around the house by learning the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which involves fixing broken items to make them look better than new. Or learn how to cast things in resin, which is a different way of saving them forever. Be a smartypants by knowing a few basics about the law and politics. Or make some cash by being the best kidsitter on the block with recipes to try, plus your newly-invented board game, balloon swords, a paper box, a jumping paper frog, and a paper airplane.

If you can go outside, there’s plenty to do with this book. Know the rules for Ultimate Frisbee, for one. If you live in an area that has snow, make an igloo that you can actually sleep in tonight. Impress others with your knowledge of wild birds. Make some rubber band guns, or head for the garage and make a tool storage unit.

And because this is a book, there’s interesting reading inside “The Double Dangerous Book for Boys.” Read about American coins, Greek legends and mythology, and try a bit of poetry, just because. Learn about card games, and dangerous adventure stories that actually happened, and that boys like you will love.

Does this book look familiar to you?

It may; similar books by author Conn Iggulden were released thirteen years ago, and you might’ve enjoyed one yourself. But, Iggulden says “I thought… I’d covered everything in the first book, but there’s nothing like raising boys for surprising you.”

And thus, “The Double Dangerous Book for Boys” is all new and made mostly of the kind of material you might’ve found in boys’ magazines fifty years ago: things to make and do, games to play, and reading that will teach critical thinking and respect for the past. So far, so good… until you reach the very last chapter, which contains information on what isn’t in this book. That includes things that parents might think are astoundingly inappropriate, and really dumb ideas that are described enough that they may just as well have been included. Heavy sigh.

Truly, as much fun as this book is, parents will want to think hard before giving it to the wrong kid. Read the last chapter of “The Double Dangerous Book for Boys” first and see if, with it, you’re courting a season of disaster.