THE BOYS’ BOOK

Riding along in the slipstream of Conn and Hal Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys (May 2007) comes this similar gathering of advice and activities—revised and expanded from a British handbook (2004) and aimed at a somewhat younger (or less capable) audience. Entries vary randomly in direct usefulness from step-by-step directions for three knots (plus tying a necktie) to living on the Space Station, and in hazard level from techniques for annoying siblings to surviving attacks from bears and crocodiles. The occasional small line drawings are usually helpful, or at least decorative. Though better suited for casual browsing than serious instruction, this will be worth picking up for all those lads (or lasses, though there is a companion volume for girls) eager to learn how to, for instance, throw a lasso, make a balloon dog or hypnotize a chicken. (Nonfiction. 9-11)