Because You Want to Book Club #9 & #10: "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and "The Daring Book for Girls"

Across the pond in the UK two books have become sort of cultural centerpieces: “The Dangerous Book for Boys” and “The Daring Book for Girls.” Both books are meant to recapture knowledge seemingly lost in this new fangled era of technology: technical handiwork and great stories from historical figures often glanced over in children’s history books that students once had to learn but now aren’t deemed as important in the grand scheme of things.

The book for boys (written by pulp fiction author Conn Iggulden and his brother Hal) and the book for girls (written by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz) both do their best to recapture what it was like to be a child in a simpler time, but do so without being condescending towards the needs and sensibilities of any reader. On their own they make great gifts for people and pretty much anyone can read them and learn how to do some pretty neat things like building tree houses, go-karts, and scooters while learning the rules for rugby, softball, cricket, and the ridiculous points scoring system for the Olympics and learning about historical figures from Napoleon to Marie Curie. There really is a lot that anyone can learn from these books.

While the content is different, the tone of the books makes them read in a similar fashion, making their biggest common flaw easy to group together despite the fact that they are getting different grades: the books can be dreadfully boring at times, especially when they talk of building things that unless you want to become a rocket scientist you will have no use for in the future. It all comes down to personal preference in the end, but undoubtedly there will be something in both books that the reader will find boring as all hell. It was halfway through reading that "Boys" book that I realized that these are not book meant to be read cover to cover, but rather to be enjoyed and parceled out over the course of lazy afternoons. If I had read the back cover, though, I would have figured it out without having to sit through a lecture on the patron saints of England.

The boy’s book seems to suffer from more tedium than the girl’s book does. The “Boys” book is also obtusely British; although, I am told there is an American version that includes different historical stories than the original. There is only one version of the “Girls” book and it is pretty much accessible to everyone world wide. Also, if you want to learn how to fuck someone up with karate, it’s in the girl’s book.

Grades: “Boys” B-, “Girls” B