Product Description

If ever there were a book to make you switch off your television set, The Dangerous Book for Boys is it. How many other books will help you thrash someone at conkers, race your own go-cart, and identify the best quotations from Shakespeare? The Dangerous Book for Boys gives you facts and figures at your fingertips -- swot up on the solar system, learn about famous battles and read inspiring stories of incredible courage and bravery. Teach your old dog new tricks. Make a pinhole camera. Understand the laws of cricket. There's a whole world out there: with this book, anyone can get out and explore it. The Dangerous Book for Boys is written with the verve and passion that readers of Conn Iggulden's number one bestselling novels have come to expect. This book, his first non-fiction work, has been written with his brother as a celebration of the long summers of their youth and as a compendium of information so vital to men of all ages. Lavishly designed and fully illustrated in colour and black and white throughout, it's set to be a perfect gift for Father's Day and beyond. Chapters in The Dangerous Book for Boys include: The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, Conkers, Laws of Football, Dinosaurs, Fishing, Juggling, Timers and Tripwires, Kings and Queens, Famous Battles, Spies, Making Crystals, Insects and Spiders, Astronomy, Girls, The Golden Age of Piracy, Secret Inks, Patron Saints of Britain, Skimming Stones, Dog Tricks, Making a Periscope, Coin Tricks, Marbles, Artillery, The Origin of Words and The Solar System.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #507 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
Praise for 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' 'The perfect handbook for boys and dads.' Daily Telegraph 'Full of tips on how to annoy your parents'. Evening Standard 'An old-fashioned compendium of information on items such as making catapults and knot-tying!the end of the PlayStation may have been signalled.' The Times 'Just William would be proud. A new book teaching boys old-fashioned risky pursuits!has become a surprise bestseller.' Daily Mail 'If you want to know how to make crystals, master NATO's phonetic alphabet!and build a workbench, look no further.' Time Out

About the Author
Born in London, Conn Iggulden read English at London University and worked as a teacher for seven years before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and children. Conn Iggulden is the author of the number one bestselling Emperor series. Hal Iggulden was born in 1972. He lives in Leicester and is a theatre director with a love of astronomy, gadgets, dogs and football.

Customer Reviews

Superb Fun
I have to write, primarily to disagree with Mr Mitchell.

This may not be the greatest book ever, but it fills a huge hole, and I for one look forward to Volume II.

I and a friend, when we were about 10, made a go-kart just like that described, and the paper aeroplane detailed in this book comfortably beats my previous "favourite design", (gleaned from a Rupert Annual many years ago). You learn something every day.

It's a great book and while learning bits of Shakespeare won't be to everyone's taste, there will be something - many things in fact - that WILL be to everyone's taste. I bought my copy on impulse in a book shop for £18.99, I'm here buying another for the 50+ year-old friend with whom I built the go-kart all those years ago! :-)

If you have kids, or grandchildren, or godchildren (or simply remember being one yourself) buy it!

SB.

'Dangerous' by name, dangrous by nature!
I was browsing my local bookshop when this gorgeous bookcover caught my eye. I picked it up flicked through it and realised that it was the perfect gift for my son's 11th birthday.

Now my son is one of those little boys for whom the only Tv channels begin with the words 'Discovery' or 'History', and whose interests could largely be summed up as 'sharp, pointy things'(historical men with big knives and extinct animals with big teeth.) He is also very creative;he spends hours drawing or building things - ballistae out of toothpicks, rafts out of twigs, castles out of cereal boxes, toilet roll holders and sticky back plastic. And this is where the 'Dangerous' bit comes in.

Not only have I had to haul off down to the dump to find him old pram wheels to make is own go-kart, he is now fully equiped to make is own bow and arrows. Which it transpires are even more effective that a coathanger and a 'laccy band... then there's the catapults and the tripwires.

I am also in danger of going deaf as I am constantly regaled with historical trivia about the British Monarchy, famous battles, astronomy,cricket and rugby, insects, the solar system, the Ten Commandments, clouds, light, trees, pirates, chess and the world in general (although I have to admit that this is only marginally worse since the arrival of the book).

So far I've managed to keep him from making fire-proof cloth (because he'll want to test it afterwards), and I think I've convinced him that you can't build a damn great tree-house in a ten-foot Elder tree, but I havn't managed to stop him taking his siblings pocket money since he learnt how to play Poker.

He was recently asked by a coy young lady to comment on the condition of her hair, which query elicited a very blank look and the response: 'Yeah... Are we allowed in the ball pit yet?' - so I don't think the pages about 'Girls' are going to cause me any problems yet, although they had me in stitches.

What else can I say? I love this book (so does my son). It's marvelous. Buy it. Today. Even if you're not a boy. Although if you keep boys - of any age - around the house and you just want a quiet life maybe you should keep it hidden.

Female member of the species
Can I just add a few words as a female member of the species and one time tomboy, who found this book, bought for my son, a brilliant read. I couldn't put it down until I'd skimmed through the whole book and I know I will go back again to 'dip in'. The projects are brilliant and the lists of facts such as kings and queens, clarify greatly the hotch potch of facts I've been carrying round in my head for many years. The book design is absolutely perfect too - reminscent of the Boy's Own type books I always found more interesting than those designed for girls.