The Forum

I heard an interview with the author of this book on the book show down here yesterday. We've seen lots of "Dangerous book for girl" imitations before but this is the first time I've heard of this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Dangerous-T ... 0984296107

http://www.fiftydangerousthings.com/about-the-book/

How do you feel about these Conn? imitation is the best form of flattery I know.. and this one does come at things from a different angle than Conn and Hal did, but still the premise is the same.

i wonder how long it will be before they are sued by some crazy parent.

No problem with this at all! I haven't read it, but it looks like a good idea and it seems to be doing well. In the UK recently, we had a fool of a headmaster threaten parents with social services for allowing an 8 year old and 5 year old to ride bikes to school one mile from home......so we still need to have this debate.

Conn

....if, for no other reason, so that we can force the people who drive (usually badly) and park (usually badly) their Chelsea tractors out of the way at 8.30 of a morning!

i was chuffed to read in the paper last week that the goverment is going to force schools into a U turn on non competitive sports in schools, proper sports days etc...

As an interesting bit of backstory, when I first pitched the book idea to a publisher, they said "it's too risky for us to publish." The second time I pitched it (a year later), they said "it's too much like Dangerous Book for Boys," which had just come out in the US.

Conn, as you note, we're both talking about the same core ideas, but in two completely different ways. The point of Fifty Dangerous Things is to create a context where parents and their children can get practice dealing with danger and mitigating risk. The topics covered in my book would never have been labeled as "dangerous" thirty years ago, but as time has passed our metrics have been skewed and children have been cut off from the world. As more of the world's population moves to cities, children are being given less and less opportunity engage with the world in a hands-on way. If Dangerous Book for Boys is to be read in the branches of a tree, Fifty Dangerous Things will get them up there.

Conn, I would be happy to send you a copy of our book if you send me your shipping address. I'm gever [at] tinkeringschool [dot] com.

The book was delivered yesterday and I have to say it's great stuff. My kids are fascinated by it and some of the things really are dangerous. I hope Gever doesn't get sued - it's a litigious old world out there. He may have done enough with the warnings on the book. Hope so, it's a cracker. I'm seriously tempted to have a go a flattening a coin on a train track - as long as we avoid the electrified third rail it should be ok.

Conn

Ah my boss told me about the flattening a coin on a train track trick and it works a treat.

The trick with that is to NOT get noticed by any officials who, strangely enough, do not seem to see the attraction in it.

Lou