Senor Parrot's Perch

I only heard of The Dangerous Book for Boys today when I came across an interesting review, of sorts. This is the book missing from my childhood!

The publisher has more about the book here, and the authors, Conn and Hal Iggulden, also have a fun video trailer linked from their site.

This is a dangerous book. If this falls into the hands of the wrong boy, he may grow up to be a man, and not some vapid, simpering, metrosexual wimp. Sheesh!

I have to say, I grew up on fun places- very fun, boy-friendly places. Woods, streams, rivers, lakes, and best of all, great friends. We were always playing the adventurers, swimming, biking, playing hockey, and building forts and other essential stuff. But lots of that stuff didn’t really work like we wanted it too.

What we needed was some single source of knowledge, a sort of swiss army knife of boyhood lore, that we could tuck into our rucksacks, dump out on the backyard lawn, or the garage workbench, and feed our creative, hungry and eager minds. Who knows what wonders we would have constructed, or how many garages we’d have burnt to the ground? The world is a sadder place. Ah – but no longer!

I’m looking for this book right away. I need it. My current job as DAD requires me to build stuff with my kids. Now, I have two daughters, but the oldest wants to build a rocket from junk she brought home from school – recycling curicullum activities, don’t ya’ know.

So far we’ve taken apart a toy washing machine to get the control panel, built wings from wooden fruit crates and attached them to a cardboard box fuselage. I think that this book covers making fireworks. I’m sure by now you catch my drift, don’t you. We may actually make this baby fly! I’m sure the oldest will volunteer the youngest, just turned 4, to be the test pilot. No end of love between those two.

If you’re confused that I’m writing about a boy’s book in the context of my daughters, then you are confused. You forget, like my cousin, Peter Pan, I’ve never grown up. I am myself one of the lost boys. This book is for me.

After reading this book, I will probably have more to say. However, my first estimate is that Conn and Hal Iggulden deserve the Nobel Prize. A worthy duo.

Note: I changed the title, since I haven’t yet spent my summer yet.

Ken Lonnquist, Madison, WI -based performer and songwriter, makes some of the best kid’s music I’ve heard. Unfortunately for you, if you’re not from around Madison, you may have never had a chance to hear of him. Let me introduce you.

Over at his website� you can find just about anything about his music. He also has samples� from his CDs there. They’re too short to give a good impression of his songs. For a wider of samples go to itunes from the links next to his CDs on his Downloads Page . You won’t be disappointed. The music should appeal to anyone in the family. On trips, we load him into the CD player in the car and enjoy him more than our kids, ages 10 and 4, do.

We have about 5 of his CDs, but my favorite is “Lost Songs From Kenland”.� When the kids are dragging on a school morning I pop it into the CD player in the kitchen and crank it. The first song is “Sunny Side Up”, the funnest breakfast song you’ll probably ever hear. In a minute we’re dancing and gettin’ silly, soon in the mood for good breakfast food.

I’d really like to hear about your own local gems that may have missed their deserved limelight. Let me know-go ahead and post a comment or let me know if you’d like to post. Provide links and photo’s if you can. There’s always room for more good family music.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a new book by J.R.R. Tolkien will be released next week. J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkein has been diligently piecing together notes and manuscripts of an unfinished book, titled The Children of Hurin, for the past 30 years, and its set for release next Tuesday, April 17, 2007. In the process he has apparently been able to deliver a book that is in fact completely written by his father, with the exception of minor tweaks on grammar, such as verb tense. This is great news for those of us that can’t get enough of Tolkien.

Publisher Houghton Mifflin has more information on its web site.

Parents use all sorts of means to get their kids to eat well so that they have a strong body. What about reading well in order to have a strong mind? Today, I want to talk about how books can introduce science to early readers, and also one in particular that I think is a good example.

Books that skillfully introduce science through an interesting story are excellent ways to kindle a kid’s imagination. How do we find things out? Who makes important discoveries and how to they do it? In what practical ways do we use science to discover the secrets of�our world? How can a kid learn to observe the world in a way the he or she can make discoveries, too?

A�great little book that got me thinking about this was Shipwreck Search: Discovery of the H.L. Hunley, written by Sally M. Walker and illustrated by Elaine Verstraete, and published in 2006 by Millbrook Press, Minneapolis, MN. Its the story of the H.L. Hunley, a confederate submarine that was sunk and lost in the American Civil War. Divers sought for years but not until 1995 were they successful.

Written for second� to fourth grade readers, Walker tells the�fascinating story of�three underwater archeologists who searched for and found the missing submarine. That was only the beginning of the discovery, however. They encountered problems along the way that required careful thinking�before devising�solutions as they sought to raise the wreck and bring it back to the lab to investigate further. (more…)