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OFF THE SHELF - Deadly read
By SGT Damian Griffin
Edition 1173, August 23, 2007 |
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| BE WARNED: Large amounts of adventure contained within. |
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The Dangerous Book for Boys
Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden
5/5 stars
This book should be standard issue to every boy in Australia.
Jam-packed full of the most brilliant ideas, projects, stories and advice that is sure to hold something of interest for every boy – as the book says, from ages eight to 80
Its mission: to recapture Sunday afternoons and hot summer days.
As the cover suggests, The Dangerous Book for Boys reaches back to an era before video games and mobile phones to when kids played outside.
The Australian version follows brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden’s suprise best-selling success in England with the first edition of The Dangerous Book for Boys published in 2006.
This was inspired by the their shared interest in writing and adventure, and perhaps a little bit of nostalgia.
The Australian edition includes many revised chapters from the first book, and also includes chapters with a purely Australian bent, such as those titled: Fishing; Insects and Spiders; Some Australian Snakes; First Aid; Maps of Australian Exploration; The Laws of Australian Football; and The Prime Ministers of Australia (to name a few).
And if they’re already sounding interesting, there are almost 90 such chapters to browse through – you won’t want to put it down.
Aside from learning how to gut and cook a rabbit, probably inspired by the chapter on how to build your own bow and arrow, I found the most interesting chapters to be those dedicated to famous battles and extraordinary stories.
These truly capture the imaginations of boys of all ages. The battles include ancient campaigns such as the 300 at Thermopylae, Cannae, Caesar’s invasions of Britain, Hastings and Crecy through to Waterloo, Balaclava, Rorke’s Drift and the Somme.
Seriously, this book is tops.
The stories chosen for extraordinary tales include such true life tales of courage and heroics as Scott of the Antarctic, Admiral Lord Viscount Horatio Nelson and the recent tale titled Touching the Void – the amazing story of survival of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates after their near-fatal attempt to climb the 6344m metre Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Yates was forced to cut the rope on Simpson after he slipped over the edge. Simpson survived the fall and crawled back to base camp three days later with a broken leg.
Inspirational stuff.
And it’s not all just theory. There’s plenty to get kids out of the house and doing stuff. Listed as essential kit item number two after the Swiss Army knife, is a compass.
And while out wandering, why not read the five poems every boy should know; the first one is Rudyard Kipling’s If. From skimming stones or writing codes to things like how to build the perfect paper aeroplane and water bomb – there’s so much in this book.
But by far the most practical advice offered is listed under the chapter on girls. This includes such hard-earned gems as “girls do not get quite as excited by the use of urine as a secret ink as boys do”.
Applies at any age.
The other thing to note about this book, and it’s not a criticism, is that despite it being an Australian edition, it still carries a distinctly British sentiment.
There’s a full run down on European royal families and the chapters on the Commonwealth and the British Empire are designed to make you puff your chest out as you hum Land of Hope and Glory. But it’s still a great read, especially as you read how some close calls in recent history could have left us speaking French or German.
And don’t worry – there’s nothing truly dangerous in here – no bomb-building techniques or punji stick designs. Just good old fashioned adventure to inspire young minds. |
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