Reading this was a breath of fresh air. It reminded me of the things that I did when I grew up. This was before the PC movement launched a war on boys being boys, and gender neutral toys.

Despite gender neutral teachings boys' software is as different from that of girls as is their hardware. There are certain things that interest boys and certain things that interest girls. No matter how you rig your gender neutral studies, it will never change.

If you have a young boy and want him to be raised as a boy then buy this book. I have many scars on my body, some small and some large. All of them are like little notch marks on my way to growing up. None of them are regretted or resented.

The only sad thing about this is that kids need to learn this kind of stuff in a book instead of from older brothers or friends like we did in the old days. That is how thorough and near complete the feminists' war on boyhood has been.

Now this is what childhood was like when I was a kid!

It used to be that if you were a boy, it was expected for you to carry a pocketknife and know how to use it. Guess what? Neither I nor none of my friends ever got seriously hurt because of it. And we were more mature, more level-headed because of it, plus we had fun with those little knives!

Of course the way schools are nowadays, kids carrying knives is not as practical as it was 25 years ago, but the basic principle still applies. American kids need the exercise from being outdoors moving around, and they need the mental development of making stuff with their hands and imagination. Treehouses are the stuff future architects are born from. Catapults launch future engineers.

Kids today don't have a clue how boring their entertainment really is, compared to the old days before video games. Buy them this book, and let them see what they've been missing!

And parents, don't worry! It's not really dangerous at all! You survived, didn't you?

I just bought this book for my son, who is 8, after reading a review in the London Times. It is a great book! It covers all the fun things like how to make a paper airplane, build a tree house, and tie knots, as well as things like grammar and history. I read through the book last night; the section on 'Girls' cracked me up! We have the UK edition, so the history bits are British centric, but this may be different in a US edition. Either way, I'd still recommend it. Buy it for your boys, but read it yourself. Those knots may come in useful some day!