Free Republic

Can fart jokes save the reading souls of boys? You better hope so. Boys have lagged behind girls in reading achievement for more than 20 years, but the gender gap now exists in nearly every state and has widened to mammoth proportions -- as much as 10 percentage points in some, according to the Center on Education Policy. "It certainly should set off alarm bells," said the center's director, Jack Jennings. "It's a significant separation." Parents of reluctant readers complain that boys are forced to stick to stuffy required school lists that exclude nonfiction or silly subjects, or have teachers...

The 'Dangerous' book puts girls on the side http://www.star-telegram.com/408/story/80188.html By JILL LAWLESS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON -- Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. In these frenzied, media-saturated times, the lure of a simpler past is more powerful than ever. That may explain the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, a deliberately retro tome that has become the publishing sensation of the year in Britain. Exuding the brisk breeziness of Boy Scout manuals and Boy's Own annuals, The Dangerous Book is a childhood how-to guide that covers everything from paper airplanes to go-carts, skipping stones to skinning a rabbit....

The Dangerous Book for Boyshttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20058973-5003900,00.html http://tinyurl.com/or3b2 Christopher Bantick 12aug06 The Dangerous Book for Boys By Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden HarperCollins, 400pp, $39.95 UNAMBIGUOUSLY blokey, The Dangerous Book for Boys will have many fathers, or even grandfathers, remembering their days with crystal sets and billycarts. But are such things dangerous? According to the brothers Iggulden, who have in place of an introduction a piece called I Didn't Have this Book When I Was a Boy, boyhood "is all about curiosity". But the kind of curiosity here is of a certain age and time. There's nothing wrong with a fair swish...

First, there was the question of the title: "The Dangerous Book for Boys." HarperCollins Publishers' Chief Executive Jane Friedman just didn't understand what it meant. Sure, the book had been a hit in England and Australia, but that didn't mean it would work in the U.S. But the sales staff urged her to stick with it, and in just two weeks, "Dangerous" has become the breakout hit of the season. The News Corp. unit initially ordered up 91,000 copies. There are now 405,000 copies in print. One senior HarperCollins executive, extrapolating from overseas sales and population data, projects that "Dangerous,"...