The Dangerous Book for Boys
924861
Great book. My son loves this.  Lots of fun things to do. Entertaining and informative.
3154152
this book is what the movie could've been nasty and gory and most definitely not for kids
4961157
This was  a very disturbing  book for my 10 year old son.  He has read  countless books  in this series and really enjoys them . He is a real history buff. However, this historical figure should not be depicted in a children's  book.  There was too  much violence for a kid to read.
3001081
This is a well-written book in which the author took time to develop the characters well before plunging into action.  It was scary and fascinating to read.  I read this with my 11 year-old.  It was really scary, even I got the chills reading it.  NOTHING like Harry Potter scary.  This books is horror story scary.  So, while we did enjoy the book very much, I wouldn't recommend this to a child who is younger than 11 or 12.
3972305
Throughout history, boys have always been more aggressive and prone to misbehavior than girls.  At least that is the common perception.  According to Kenneth B. Kidd in his new book Making American Boys, the scouting/camping movement that began in the early 20th Century was geared towards harnessing male adolescent aggressiveness in constructive directions.  This movement was so successful that our contemporary ideas about boys and how to raise them came from the Boy Scouts.
This is an amazing and informative book.
2861530
The book Nightmare is a good book. A boy named nick who had a really bad week. First of all, some guy fell off of a overpass and made him wreck his car, someone tried to break into his house and shot his dog, then someone did break into his house and trashed his room. Later on he is worried about the cops saying he ment to kill the guy that jumped off the over pass. But Nick knows that that the man didn't not want to die. The Police seem to think it was a suicide. When Nick hit him, Nick won't for get the face that hit his window. My opinion is that Nick has bad luck becasue he  has people breaking into his house, they go and kill his dog and than another day they break into his house and they trashed his room. Than when the man jumped off the over pass and hit Nicks car, Nick smashed up his car. I my self feel that Nick is having bad luck and does not like it. i will be reading more of theses books.
4801874
As a father to sons AND daughters, the Dangerous Book for my sons was great, but of course my oldest daughter wanted to know if Santa was bringing one for her too. She's only 4, so she's too young for anything but the pictures, but with this and Amazon, it looks like she'll get lucky.

It's a beautiful looking book, for a start, well bound, attractive colours etc. My wife found it fascinating and the more we looked at it, the more she kept saying 'Oh this bit is great!' I'm not going to be trying a backwards walk-over any time soon (not with my back!) but I'm not the target audience. I liked the choices of heroic women like Amelia Earheart and Joan of Arc. I also liked the children's games, things to make and the karate section! As said father to girls, I want them to defend themselves - but the authors haven't tried to make this a boys book for girls. Some of it is very old-fashioned feminine stuff and frankly, it's about time someone did it. Girls may grow up to be CEOs these days, but my daughters enjoy making pretty things from paper and string as well.

No doubt there will be some who complain about the lack of 'man-hating' in here, but hey, the seventies are a long time ago and some things appeal to girls more than boys. All that good stuff is in here, without apology. I know it appeals to my wife, who said it never would. I know it appeals to a twelve year old girl cousin, who now wants one. I think this is going to make a good present.

James
2286479
We had this book when my sister and I were 4 and 6, and living in Germany. My younger sister was extremely traumatized by the story and pictures of the boy whose thumbsucking results in his thumbs being cut off by a man with giant shears, illustrated by copious amounts of dripping blood. I'm 1000 percent with the reviewers who say that kids today are spoiled and need guidance, but there are better ways to teach those lessons. A parent who knows foolishness in their child when they see it, and is willing to lovingly and constantly set an example and correct their child's wrong behavior, is way ahead of a creepy "scare 'em straight" book. But for sheer entertainment value for adults, this book is right up there.
2035544
I give three stars because of content. My seven year old loves the adventure. But the content is for older boys. I find myself marking over words I'm not comfortable with him reading and eventually just stopped reading them altogether.  I bought a whole set of these thinking they would be fine. We read the first book together, the Dinosaur one, and that one is great. However, they get more violent as you get into the following books. For a Six year old at the time, I was not comfortable with him reading about slitting throats and killing. So beware parents of young children who can read really well.
3697192
I read this book when I was 8 years old. I am 31 now, and I have never forgotten it. I was a voracious reader as a child, always 3-4 grades above my age. It was terrifying. I had nightmares for over a year and my parents actually complained to the library about its cataloging in the chilsren's section once they reviewed the book. The 1 star rating does not relate to the book's content but to its publisher's classification as children's literature. It is a horror novel, plain and simple. I would not recommend this to any reader under the age of 16.
2865115
Completely agree with Michael Burton. I got this book accidentally from the library, randomly picking off the picture book shelves, and was horrified as I read it to my 5 and 2 yr olds.  I had to get on here and warn other parents away.  Mean people doing bad things, being punished by death from evil spirits unleashed upon them by a child. WHAT???!!!  What was the author thinking???
1478986
I really like this book and  can't wait to read the scorch trials good book but I definitely don't recommend it for young children
3642848
I love this book, and plan to read it aloud to my children.  However, I strongly believe that this book should NOT be read by children and teens apart from adult guidance.  There is a reference to concubines choosing to leap to their deaths off of a cliff rather than be taken prisoner.  These suicides are looked upon by other characters in the story as heroic. However, the main character comes to the conclusion that at times, (but not always), it is more courageous to live than to choose to leap to your death.  I'm uncomfortable with anything that might give young people the idea that suicide is sometimes an acceptable option. I think this question should be reserved for adult literature.
646147
After my boys stumbled into some really bad pictures online, we read this book to them.  I was so thankful to have such a great book to read, and my boys enjoyed it.  I highly recommend it to any parent.  I would say that this book is appropriate for any child age 6-7 and up.  It does not get into any discussion at all of adult relations--it strictly talks about what good and bad pictures are and what you should do if you happen to see bad pictures.  Do not be afraid of this topic with your kids!  If your child has any access at all to a computer--at school, at friends' houses, or even when playing on your phone, you need to read this book to them.
3894504
I have always loved this book, and considered it at the number one book I wanted to purchase for my almost four year old son.

HOWEVER,  when I checked this title out from the library, I noticed the page for the letter K.

"Kid Kookaburra and Kelly Kangaroo KIDNAPPING Kitty Koala", complete with machine guns.

 If you're okay with guns and lots of images of them for small children, go ahead and buy this book.  It IS wonderfully illustrated.  If, however, you don't want harrowing images of machine guns (and other little guns, daggers, etc. within other pages) dancing in your young one's head at night, this book is NOT for you.  Perhaps an older child could handle this better; but it is certainly NOT an appropriate book (in my opinion) for the under 8 set.  Why, oh why, did the author include such images?  Otherwise, it would have been my favorite book of this type for children.  Buy the "Where's Waldo" or "I Spy" series instead.
2103690
TITLE: Little Brother
AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow
PUBLISHER: Tor (Tom Doherty Associates, LLC)
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2008
PAGES: 365
GRADE LEVEL(S): 9-10
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English, American History, Contemporary Affairs, Ethics
CLASSROOM USES: Required reading, Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles
BRIDGE TEXTS: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The 9/11 Commission Report

Why do we ban books in our schools and libraries? To protect our students, right? They are young and impressionable, and we must protect their fragile minds. So we block off books that contain profanity, references to sex, or drugs and alcohol, or subversive ideas.

So, let's give Little Brother the test. Profanity? Check. Sex, drugs, alcohol? Check, check, check. Subversive ideas? Double check.

Doctorow's main character and narrator is a 17 year-old high school student with a penchant for using technology to scare up excitement. He starts innocently enough, hacking his school-owned laptop so that he can IM friends during classes or putting rocks in his shoes to fool the gait-recognition technology in the school's security cameras. When Marcus's hacking exploits make him a terrorism suspect in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security, his world changes in nearly every possible way. His friendships are pushed to the limit, he wonders why his parents can't see his point of view, and he loses faith in his government as an advocate for the innocent and guarantor of freedom.

Most high school students will never be terror suspects, or even much more adept with computers than to load basic software and create powerpoint presentations for class projects. But they can all relate to friendships on the skids, feeling estranged from parents, or worrying that the system has somehow abandoned them. Students will relate to Marcus Yallow's story.

While students will find an ally in Marcus, teachers will find an excellent vehicle for a variety of lessons and units. Coming of age. Loss of innocence. Personal privacy versus national security. To what extent does the government's responsibility lie more in protecting its citizens' constitutional rights, and to what extent are those rights expendable in the interest of public safety?

There is no end to fodder for discussion and debate in this novel; creative teachers will see opportunities for all manner of classroom activities and cross-curricular assignments. But before throwing this book into the syllabus, teachers are going to have to answer questions about the profanity, the sex, drugs, and alcohol, and (perhaps most of all) the subversive ideas. Doctorow's position in this novel is not, shall we say, "fair and balanced." Detractors will point to the book's overt liberalism and anti-government sentiments. Any of these fears can be allayed easily enough with a well-written rationale and some ancillary reading material that presents a more conservative viewpoint.

The alternative is to leave this book out of classrooms and libraries altogether, to add it to another list of banned books. Over the years, we've banned William Chaucer, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, and the Bible. Among such company, it could be a real honor for Doctorow were his book to be banned--but to keep this book from kids would be a real miscarriage of justice.<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Little-Brother/dp/0765323117/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Little Brother</a>

For more: visit [...] - The YA Lit Review
4789332
Rabbits are my son's favorite animals. He also likes his stuffies. He did not like the part of this book where the rabbit is almost destroyed. I think it colored his opinion of the whole book. I would not recommend this book for a sensitive child. It is recommended for ages up to 8 and grades K-3rd.