Women, Stop Whining About The Title!

The Dangerous Book for Boys is difficult to describe. It has a jumble of information that the authors thought that mainly boys would find interesting. There are chapters on how to tie knots, how to make a bow and arrows,how to build a tree house, the seven wonders of the ancient world, astronomy etc. None of the subjects go into depth but it is good starting place for young children to discover what interest them.

I've heard a few women complain about the title. "We can't let our daughters read the book" "Our daughters would love the books except they won't read it because of the title."

First off, if you have a daughter who would be interested in such activities as skinning a rabbit then she isn't going to be put off by the title. I bought this book for my youngest daughter, Sarah. She gravitates toward more boyish pursuits and the title simply intrigued her. There is enough educational information that she and I can read it when I home school and count it as a learning experience.

Besides are we all so shallow that we will only read books in which the main character is like us? In high school I was assigned Richard Wright's Black Boy while I was in High School. Should I have refused to read the novel because I am neither a boy nor black? What about Treasure Island? Why read Treasure Island, after all, I am not a boy like the main protagonist?

Sometimes, in America, we take good ideas and ruin them by going to extremes. It is a very good thing that today we can find more positive portrayals of women, minorities and the handicapped on both television and in books. But that doesn't mean that the only characters that we can identify with are those who are exactly like us or that we can't read novels that are aimed at the opposite sex or at a different race.

So parents-mothers particularly-if you think that your daughter(like mine) would enjoy such activities as making a battery, or discovering that urine makes great secret ink(I've forbidden her from trying this) then buy the book and don't worry about the title.