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Boy, Oh Boy, Have We Got Some Reads for You



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 10th 07, 04:40 AM posted to rec.arts.books.childrens,misc.kids,alt.parenting.solutions,soc.libraries.talk
Fred Goodwin, CMA
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Default Boy, Oh Boy, Have We Got Some Reads for You

Boy, Oh Boy, Have We Got Some Reads for You

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...le/2007/06/07/
AR2007060702055.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ocmpt

By Justin Ewers
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, June 10, 2007; M05

Boys will be boys -- that is, clever but flatulent, dirty but funny,
mostly lazy, occasionally heroic and, of course, totally fascinated
with blowing things up. So say three new books, anyway, which aim to
put their finger on that most elusive of manly skills: how to be a
boy. Covering topics that will amuse boys of all ages (did we mention
flatulence?), they may even be worth giving to Dad -- the oldest "boy"
in the house -- on Father's Day.

Less Danger, More Fun

"The Dangerous Book for Boys" (Collins, $24.95) is a brazen effort by
two British 30-somethings to inject the good old days back into
boyhood. Call it a primer for a life of snips and snails and puppy dog
tails. It has already had a surprising run to the top of Britain's
bestseller list.

Inside a faux-Victorian cover, brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden offer
boys a guide for nearly every conceivable challenge, from making a go-
cart to finding north in the dark. Brief history lessons on subjects
near to boys' hearts -- the golden age of piracy, battles from
Thermopylae to Gettysburg -- follow answers to boyhood's eternal
questions: Where does cork come from? What's the world record for
skippin g stones across a lake? (Thirty-eight skips, for any
challengers.)

Anticipating a backlash from those left out of the fun, the Igguldens
concede that some girls may enjoy their book, too. "But as a general
rule," they write, "girls do not get quite as excited by the use of
urine as a secret ink as boys do." Fair point.

Potential for destruction: C (How badly can you hurt yourself playing
stickball?)

Suitability for actual boys: A+ (Field test it with a 10-year-old.
He'll love it.)

The Invention Dimension

There are nearly 7 million patents registered in the United States --
and let's hope they aren't all as outlandish as the 70 inventions
featured in "It's a Guy Thing: Awesome Innovations From the
Underdeveloped Male Mind" (Three Rivers, $13.95). From motorized pogo
sticks to head-mounted kegs, Scott Seegert highlights some of the best
"guy stuff" on file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Even
grown-up boys, in his cheerfully pessimistic analysis, are concerned
mostly with finding new ways to shoot one another, with less effort,
while drinking beer.

Along with a portable automobile urinal, a high-five simulator and a
bulletproof helmet, Seegert discovered designs for inflatable
furniture that floats to the ceiling -- so the truly lazy gentleman
doesn't have to make his bed. Then there is the .22-caliber golf club,
complete with an exploding charge in the club head that prevents the
ball from hooking or slicing. Seegert describes the device with a
certain fatalism: "Guys like to shoot guns. Guys like to play golf. It
only stands to reason that they would absolutely love anything that
combined the two activities." Fore!

Potential for destruction: A ("Bulletproof" helmets and motorized pogo
sticks: 'nuff said.)

Suitability for actual boys: D (Beer gadgets aren't for the underage.)

Ready, Aim, Fire!

"Science isn't just about blowing things up," a friend once told
William Gurstelle, author of "Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's
Guide to Building Projectile Shooters" (Three Rivers, $16.95).
"Rather, it's about blowing things up and knowing how you did it." So
begins a potentially frightening book devoted to the fine art of
explosive-projectile flinging.

Laden with step-by-step directions for constructing devices such as T-
shirt cannons and miniature pulse jets, Shakespeare, it is not -- but
that won't faze the fanatical and obsessed. Soliloquies on the best
brand of PVC pipes abound, along with several stern warnings about
safety. Gurstelle's potato cannon, after all, uses a stun gun ignition
system to fling spuds more than a 100 yards. And that's one of his
smaller projects.

"You might believe that building a jet engine at home is beyond the
means and capabilities of most hobbyists," Gurstelle writes. You would
be wrong. A word to the wise: If a neighbor buys this book, take
cover.

Potential for destruction: A+ (Potato cannons and jet engines, c'mon!)

Suitability for actual boys: D (Um, Mom would never approve.)

Justin Ewers is a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report.

  #2  
Old June 19th 07, 08:23 PM posted to rec.arts.books.childrens,misc.kids,alt.parenting.solutions,soc.libraries.talk
[email protected]
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Default Boy, Oh Boy, Have We Got Some Reads for You

BTW, the book was mentioned at the end of the 6:30 national news last
night - but I've already forgotten which network it was. The piece
included someone's saying that a few decades ago, it was common for
boys to get their first jacknife at age 6 - and another scene of a boy
reading aloud, from the book, the instructions for carving up a rabbit
for cooking (after you've hunted it down personally, I presume).

Lenona.

  #3  
Old June 21st 07, 05:05 PM posted to rec.arts.books.childrens,misc.kids,alt.parenting.solutions,soc.libraries.talk
[email protected]
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Posts: 46
Default Boy, Oh Boy, Have We Got Some Reads for You


And check this out!

http://reason.com/news/show/120879.html

By Cathy Young.

What's surprising is that Young is a well-known libertarian
conservative who, when it comes to gender wars, tends to talk mainly
in support of men's rights. On the rare occasions when she criticizes
supporters of men's rights, they tend to be near-extremists like Dr.
Laura. (After all, how hard is it to condemn DL's line from her
"Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands" book "remember that without him,
you are only a sorry excuse for a person"?) See here for review, if
you like: http://www.reason.com/news/show/31881.html

Excerpts from the former article:

On blogs and Internet forums, readers complaining about the book's
exclusionary message have been dismissed as angry feminist whiners; a
standard rejoinder is that no one is stopping girls from reading it if
they want. Yet my friend Dana, a graduate student who holds no brief
for angry feminism or political correctness, shares the concerns about
the gender-specific focus of The Dangerous Book. "I would have loved
this book as a kid, and it really bugs me how people are saying 'this
is such a great book for boys, and it's so wonderful that it's aimed
at boys,'" she says. "Where is the book for girls who did stuff like
make their own chain mail as kids, or cracked rocks with sledgehammers
in the driveway both to see what was inside them and to see if you
could get sparks?" Dana is not convinced by the argument that girls
can read the book too, given that it is geared so explicitly to boys.
Indeed, the message to girls seems to be either "This stuff is not for
you" or "You can enjoy this cool stuff if you want to be like the
boys......."

Partly in response to queries about a companion volume for girls,
HarperCollins is now bringing The Daring Book for Girls, scheduled for
publication in November. There's nothing wrong with having separate
books aimed at girls and boys, each with a somewhat different focus.
The trouble with The Dangerous Book for Boys is not that it seeks to
restore the old-fashioned charms of adventurous boyhood but that it's
being treated as a restoration of old-fashioned wisdom about boys and
girls. The "free to be you and me" message of 1970s feminism was often
naïve in its assumption that all differences between the sexes were
the result of social conditioning. But it also had a liberating
message of celebrating individuality. And it would be a shame to throw
out that baby with the bathwater, at a time when girls and boys have
more options open to them than ever.

(end)

Lenona.

 




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