The Dangerous Book for Boys

In a review for The Weekly Standard Roger Kimball describes it thus:

I first encountered this admirable work when it was published in London last year. I liked its retro look--the lettering and typography of the cover recalls an earlier, more swashbuckling era--and I thought at first it must be a reprint. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a book containing instructions on how to make catapults, how to hunt and cook a rabbit, how to play poker, how to make a waterbomb, was published today, the high noon of nannydom.

My favorite gross-out raison d'etre for the book was the following line in a recent Washington Post column by the author himself, Conn Iggulden: "I know there are women who can lift heavier weights than I can, but on the whole, boys are more interested in the use of urine as secret ink than girls are." The hilarious opening anecdote of the column made me nostalgic for the day when I was about eight years old and my 14-year-old brother convinced me how cool it would be for us to ride his bike down the terrifyingly steepest hill in the neighborhood, with ME ON THE HANDLEBARS. Disaster, of course, ensued. (Point being: read the whole column.)

I haven't purchased the book yet, but I've flipped through its very cool pages at the book store, and I'm just putting it off until there's an appropriate occasion on which to present it as a gift to my 11-year-old son, whom I will refer to here as "AJ" -- short for "Adventurous Justin."

AJ is the perfect boy for this book, or rather, the kind of boy who could probably write many of its chapters himself. By quick figuring, so far this summer, in the woods and bayou near our home, AJ has already caught, with his bare hands mind you, a dozen ribbon snakes, half a dozen diamond-back water snakes, two black rat snakes, and assorted lizards, turtles, frogs too many to list. (Not to worry: AJ, who learned his catching technique, but not his sense of caution, watching his idol, the late great Crocodile Hunter, knows every species, the dangerous from the harmless, like an expert.) With pole and net, he's caught catfish, redfish, croaker, sheephead, and enough blue crabs to keep his mom smiling all summer. And the other night he wiped me out playing Texas Hold 'Em.

I can't wait to see what other nifty tricks, adventures, and little-gentleman lessons this book holds in store for him. And me.