The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, Centennial Edition [Paperback]

Daniel Carter Beard (Author), Noel Perrin (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 2010 | Age Range: 9 and up

First published in 1882, this is a wealth of projects and games, with practical directions on how to make them, by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. The ultimate pre-TV, anti-couch potato activity book, it answers the question, "What's there to do?"

Editorial Reviews

Review

If Huckleberry Finn were to settle down, somewhere out there in the territory, and decide to become an author, he might very well come up with a book like this one . . . evoking the kind of boyhood that nearly every American man would like to have had himself, and hope that his son (or daughter) might still enjoy. --Washington Post Book World<br /><br />Today you can be privy to all these splendid secrets . . . printed on acid-free paper and sewn in signatures, it will last to be handed down to you great-grandboys. --Henry Kisor, The Chicago Sun-Times<br /><br />Today you can be privy to all these splendid secrets . . . printed on acid-free paper and sewn in signatures, it will last to be handed down to you great-grandboys. --Henry Kisor, The Chicago Sun-Times

Today you can be privy to all these splendid secrets . . . printed on acid-free paper and sewn in signatures, it will last to be handed down to you great-grandboys. --Henry Kisor, The Chicago Sun-Times

About the Author

<DIV>Daniel Beard was born in 1850 and lived most of his life in Kentucky. From an early age Beard decided to devote his life to American boyhood. He was a prolific writer and illustrator and the founder of two different societies for boys, as well as one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. Before his death in 1941, Beard received the only Golden Eagle badge ever awarded by the Boy Scouts of America, and the mountain peak adjoining Mount McKinley in Alaska was named in his honor.</div>

Product Details

• Age Range: 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: David R Godine; Centennial edition (July 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879234490
• ISBN-13: 978-0879234492
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Crafts for Children
  • #41 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Social Skills

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book for Boys (and Girls)! February 16, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I had a copy of this as a kid and read and re-read it to the point that the cover was more tape than original material. A wonderful guide to doing things yourself, and a welcome antidote to today's passive consumer paradigm of childhood. A fair number of the materials called for are hard if not impossible to find today, but the spirit of adaptation and improvisation that imbues this book will inspire the reader to find substitutes. Some parents may suspect the fair number of projectile- launching devices described, but the book is infinitely less violent than most child-oriented television shows and never fails to stress safety. My friends and I learned a lot of practical mechanics and crafting skills, developed our hand-eye coordination, and never shot anything more fragile than a plastic figure. We did a heck of a lot more damage to each other and our environment playing soccer and broomstick polo. My own future children will unquestionably have a copy of _The American Boy's Handy Book_ when they're old enough.

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars retro fun for active kids August 24, 2004

By audrey TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Filled with black & white illustrations and schematics, this guide for American boys, originally published in 1882, is organized by season and is chock-full of instructions, suggestions and advice about kites, fishing, knots, telescopes, tents, soap bubbles, animals, snowball warfare, puppets, kaleidoscopes, whirligigs, costumes, decoys--even fireworks!! The emphasis is on building things yourself, and to that end it is an extremely valuable handbook for our increasingly passive society. There are definitely things here that will give you pause or that are culturally dated -- like making a blow gun, trapping and raising wild animals and taxidermy at home -- but that is where parenting comes in, and all-in-all I would say this is a valuable and exciting book for kids, filled with pragmatic insights and a fun historical document as well. Snowball war, anyone?

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must for any active & creative boy. October 22, 1999

By J.T. Ashby ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

In 1949, I was given a 1890 hard bound addition of this book. Ican not begin to tell you how many of the projects in this book gaveme so much fun and a sense of achievement to complete.

To this day, I'll thumb through the pages and remember a time when life was a lot easier and childredn were allowed to be children.