For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever

by Marc Aronson, HP Newquist

Hey, Boys!

Want to have some fun? Maybe learn how to land an airplane in an emergency? Or fight off an alligator? Escape from being tied up? How about taking a ride on one of America’s scariest roller coasters? Learn how to make fake blood or turn a real bone into a pretzel. What if you could find out how to identify some of the world’s most horrifying creatures? Or learn the secret of making a blockbuster movie? What about guessing the top 11 greatest moments in sports history? Find buried treasure? And once you’ve found the treasure, find out just how much it would cost you to buy one of the world’s most expensive cars.

You’ll find all this—and much more—over 250 pages of the biggest, baddest, and best information on just about everything. Plus we’ve placed a special, mind-bending, solve-the-code puzzle on random pages throughout the book that will lead you to a really cool solution! Now, that’s fun!

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Middle Grade

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 27, 2007

About the author

Aronson has won many awards for his books for young readers and has a doctorate in American history. His lectures cover educational topics such as mysteries and controversies in American history, teenagers and their reading, the literary passions of boys, and always leave audiences asking for more.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/marcar...

Reviews

[Dragyn Phayge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most sexist book ever -.- I'm a mom, and this book is loaded with stuff I loved as a child.
But how can that be? I'm a *dramatic pause* a GIRL!
Yes, it's true. Girls can also love the same things as boys - and vice versa. Now my daughter tells me she can't read this book because she's not a boy.
Way to keep the divide between the sexes going. Because books being gendered is totally the way to do it.

[Miguel diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

NO GIRLS ALLOWED

[Evan Brenneman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book For Boys Only compiles everything a boy likes in one book. Well, maybe not everything, but there is a plethora of information both historical and trivial from learning about the seven wonders of the world, to why the Statue of Liberty is the color green! With things like blueprints to build "stuff" and codes to crack you’ll never lose interest in reading. The book acts as the unofficial manual for being a boy. With fast cars and pizza, who could ever be uninterested? The authors Marc Aronson and HP Newquist give the book a look I’ve never seen before as its pages dance along with bold characters and intriguing fonts. The book's unusual red,black, and white cream pages give the reader a different perspective when reading. In between 157 pages is an adventure most will find entertaining as the book carry’s plenty of topics that keep you locked in. The added bonus of a possible prize after solving the codes intertwined within the text, keeps the reader on the lookout for any possible clues given page to page. Even though history may be boring to some, Marc and Newquist keep the historic value as well as the reader's attention. The short, yet compact book, gives the reader a playful outlook on both history and reading. I find this book to be well served as something you could bring on a short trip. The book also makes a great gift as it's not seen as a book but rather an adventure for the mind.

[Stevenw · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a good book for boys

[Joyce Yattoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Venomous snakes, pizza statistics, best individual athletic performances to name a few. A fun book to read. Great for when students forget to bring their books to class or just want to read some fun informational text. I gave it a three star only because I had difficulty reading the print in some places. It was very small and found myself struggling even with my readers. 🤪

[Sam Jordan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so bad I want to give it a zero, but that's not possible, so I give it a one! This book was the most atrocious thing I have ever encountered. The title is correct when it refers to it as the "Baddest Book Ever." This book is sexist and awful and I would not not recommend this book to anyone if they care for their mental health.

[Kylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book when I was about 10 or so I'm 20 now and I still read this book and solve the cipher puzzels a lot of fun I recommend getting it for your kids.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great young adults book!

[Xander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Arthur]

the book was good overall if your a boy it will be better. An it was tips for the boys on life and make it easily.

[serena]

as a girl this was the biggest baddest book ever!

[Ethan Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book. This book includes a variety of random fun facts from sport history and greatest sports feats to how to escape when tied up with a robe.

[Esther LeeAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

My brothers said they liked it...
I learned how to tie several knots, and how to survive in the wilderness with only string, a closepin, and hair tie!

[Heather Sabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dylan loves it!

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be a "fast" read, since it's mostly a collection of facts in bite-sized chunks about a COMPLETELY RANDOM selection of topics, such that the topic changes completely every two pages.* However, there are a number of puzzles sprinkled through the book at the bottom of random pages, which... slows down the reading speed a bit, haha. (Assuming you want to solve them, of course!) Anyway, the vast number of topics makes my shelves functionally useless, so if I miss tagging any, there's a reason for that.

...actually, it keeps coming back to sports, so maybe this is a sports almanac that breaks up the monotony with facts about other random things.

Probably the most useful thing in this book is how to escape from being tied up (assuming you are on a chair or other movable surface—tied to a pole or tree won't help as much), depending on how much crime is in your area or how much hostage potential you have. You'd think "How to land a plane in an emergency" would be it, but this assumes you will be flying in the first place. (I haven't been in *coughcoughmumble* years and don't really plan to ever again for a number of reasons, but maybe you will be! I don't know.) Similarly, how to survive a shark attack isn't terribly useful for folks who don't go to the beach, much less in the ocean (me). *Maybe* how to survive an alligator (or crocodile) attack—hold its jaws shut—but that also supposes there are gators/crocs around.

On the whole, an *okay* read but nothing worth bingeing like I did. The puzzles might be good, but I'll pick at those in my own time without running up the "time spent reading" clock.

*Notable exceptions:
- A section on the U.S. Presidents takes up four pages, just because there are so many of them, and that only goes through Bush 2.
- A section that reads like "Sportsfans go head to head" comparing various individuals who excelled in different sports... my brain is glossing over this section a little, since sportsball isn't really my jam, though I have to raise an eyebrow at the "Sports in America" timeline that includes "1996: Kazuki Takahashi invents Yu-Gi-Oh." Like... a trading card game is the LEAST "sport" activity there is, I think??
- A section on famous treasures, "buried and otherwise." Actually, that seems spot on for a "boys only" book.
- A section on monsters, also tracks for "boys only" material.
- A section on the U.S. states and their capitals, significantly less catchy or memorable than Wakko's America.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the cool facts like about the speed of light.

[Andrew Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopedia of awesome.

[Brandon Smithson]

If you were a boy would you want to learn life lesson and important things that have happen in the world? Because I would! My book For Boys Only was a different kind of book. It did not have characters or a story. It was about different stuff that can that they think will help you in your life. For example it taught you how to play ultimate frisbee. It also told you facts about cool things that have happened like the biggest upset in sports and facts about snakes, cars, sports and food. One the most interesting parts was about the coolest play to ever happen in sports when a guy on Duke with only seconds left in the game-made a pass to someone standing on the free throw line. The guy on the free throw line caught the pass he scored at the buzzer to win the national championship.

This book has section headings like sports and cars. There are pictures of things that have happened in the world or how to do something which was showed you in pictures. I think this book was pretty much organized because most facts were placed in the right section.The writing was all very short and quick but gave you vision of what happened so it made the book interesting. I think the book could've improved a little bit by adding more life lessons than facts. I think people that are boys and want to learn cool facts and life lessons should read this book. I rate this 2.5 stars out of 5 because it was okay because it taught me a couple of thing but it got a little boring with all the facts.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever

by Marc Aronson and HP Newquist

* Reading level: Ages 9-12
* Hardcover: 160 pages
* Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (November 27, 2007)
* ISBN-10: 0312377061

In the vein of The Dangerous Book for Boys (excellent) and The Boys’ Boook: How to be the Best at Everything (not), For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever is the newest installment in the fad of “retro” books on “how to be an old-fashioned boy”. And, luckily, this one is very good.

A lot of the book is taken up by random facts that boys wil find interesting. There are some how-tos, puzzles, etc, but the majority of the information in this book is in fact educational in nature. However, it is written in such a snazzy way and on such interesting topics that the average reader will either not notice or not care.

There are timelines of important dates in topics like food, skateboarding, sports, space, and other things, and there are bulllet-lists and full-prose sections on many topics. There are some illustrations here, all in the “ye-olde-boys-handbook” style, and it all makes for a very nice package.

In general, a very entertaining read, be it cover to cover or flip through.

4P, 5Q

[Jake Segura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I am reading is For Boys Only by Marc Aronson. I picked up this book because of its tittle. First, the book is something that only boys would care or like hence the name. The book gives so many little tips and random but useful facts in the margin of the book. I like this because I like to look around in magazines for facts so this book appeals to me. This book would be hard to summarize but I am going to do my best to. Ranging from how to fight a shark to the worlds most expensive super cars. For Boys Only has tons of short stories like how to land a plane in a emergency, DNA testing, weapons that changed history, and earths extremes. This book is a guys miscellaneous stop for unreal facts.In my opinion I liked this book.
I liked this book because like any guy I too love random facts that pertain to life and how to do certain random tasks. Such that of landing a plane(taught in the book). One of the facts I liked the most in this book was that on how to fight a shark. Which I thought was hilarious but helpful. This was how the whole book was funny but yet use full. That's why I liked this book so much. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars. Defiantly a good read for guys.

[Leith7-1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunday, November 9, 2014
For Boys Only: The Biggest, Baddest Book Ever
English 7-1

This story has a lot of facts. A few facts are about supercars– the fastest and most expensive ones. Some facts are about the deadliest animals. These animals range from scorpions to snakes to sharks! The most venomous snake is the Taipan found in Australia measuring 9 feet. X-scream is America's scariest amusement park ride. A date a man should know is 1955 when Disneyland Opened in Anaheim, California.

This story also has many tutorials. The biggest one is "How to win at rock, paper, scissors". One must go on a single path, or go scissors, paper, rock (backwards). It also has how to make a paper airplane page followed by how it correlates to a real airplane. A way to be a rockstar is to just start small by playing in many concerts. Overtime, people will start to recognise the band's existence. Finally, a great way to create a blockbuster movie is to choose a lead character that is missing both or one parent. Next, add a villain and a very wise individual. To top it off, add a potential girlfriend. These are some of the awesome features of this book.

[Doryan Cole]

Doryan Cole
Mrs. Allbee
English 2 Honors
7 November 2016


As being a young male reading “FOR BOYS ONLY THE BIGGEST BADDEST BOOK EVER” by Marc Aronson and HP Newquist, opens up a lot of things and introduces new things that you don’t learn in school. The book goes on and on about many different topics many most people won’t know about and some people won’t want to know about. The book seems to be very odd but interesting to keep the reader's attention, but what makes it better is that the book isn’t really predictable so not only will you learn new things, but you will learn new things that you as a reader wouldn’t expect to learn.
When I got the book I really didn’t know what to expect to read because I mainly got the book because of the title. This book doesn’t have a main plot or theme, it seems to be all over the place. Moving from one topic to another on the next page. It talks about: cars, dates you should know, the odds of , and things like computer byte sizes. But the main point of the book is to give information to boys. Information that may be helpful and also information that is just good to know in the real world.

[Adriane Watt]

Citation by: Adriane Watt
Type of Reference: Handbook

Call Number:

Content/Scope: A handbook targeted for boys ages 10-13. This book teaches kids to make fake blood, land an airplane and even how to wrestle an alligator. This book is created to catch boys attention however I can also girls loving this book. It teaches boys how to start fires and just basic information that they may need to know one day.

Accuracy/Authority/Bias: This book is targeted for boys but could catch the attention of girls.

Arrangement/Presentation: This book is sectioned off into how to scenarios. It is 160 pages of this is how you do this. It has eye catching fonts and the organization is easy to read and understand. Their are pictures to replicate what is being taught. The coloring is dull but I think that is what is so interesting about it.

Relation to other works: This book is made to teach boys how to do stuff. There are many other books out there very similar but do not have the same how to passages.

Accessibility/Diversity: The book is meant to target boys however boys would also be interested in some of the how to's that are found in it.

Cost: $16.99

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cool and good

[Oscar Basuyaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

October 31, 2014

This novel is very interesting, and gives tips and talks about boy's stuff.
Boy's stuff is pretty much the stuff that all the boys like.
For example, cars, monsters, treasures, disasters, and weapons.
As it reads earlier, this book gives some advices and some tips,
which means that it helpful in addition of being fun and interesting.
It's also written dates of important moments in the history of sports or
amusement parks.

It gives brain teasers and puzzles that are very difficult to
understand. I read 80 pages and that pretty much wraps them up.
This book is also written in a awesome way, the authors did a really good job
writing this book. For example, the cars section is very detailed, telling the reader
the max speed and the price of each car. For the treasures part there are explanations
of what the legends are and where they are located. To wrap up, this book is a real pleasure
to read.

[Braeden · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Boys Only The Biggest Baddest Book Ever is about interesting facts and awesome stuff you need to know. I was surprised by some of the things that I read.
One of the thing I learned is that the CN Tower in Toronto weighs approximately 23,214 elephants which is 134,284,000 pounds. I didn't think a building could weigh that much. Another awesome thing that I learned is that supercars are faster than regular cars by 100 MPH. The Bugatti is the fastest car in this book and it goes 252 MPH. In 2.5 seconds it goes 0-60. Can you imagine how fast that would be?
I don't know why this book is for boys only. I think girls would be interested too. I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Roxanne Hsu Feldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was charmed by this book -- by its content, by the authors' introductions and tones, by the old fashioned design, and by the violent-reaction-inducing title... However, of late, there seems to have been quite a few books like this one: The Dangerous Book for Boys and Daring Book for Girls, or the Big Book of Stuff for Boys -- all share the same kind of nostalgic design and color scheme and "almanac like" content. Is this one more outstanding than the others? I have not read these other titles so cannot judge. Help me out here, someone?

[Angeluismanzueta · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book includes or is about boys in worst case scenarios stunts and facts such as how to handles world's craziest animals world's natiest animals and or how to land a plane.

i would connect this book to myself of when i was in dominican republic and i was riding my father's 4 wheel (quad) and i had tried to do a stunt which turned out wrong and i fliped over.

i would give this book 5 out of 5 stars because obvously it is the baddest book "ever" and it has it's worst case scenarios.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just LOVE this book! It's kind of funny that I bought this book, since our house is mostly girls. It's full of interesting, fun information that keeps you turning the pages. I like how the format lets you put it down at any time. (There are no chapters or anything; each page/spread is its own category.) This is a great book if you have kids who don't like to read. Definitely a fabulous book for boys and girls alike!

[Mason Cabillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was action-packed,filled with lost of interesting and random tidbits regarding history happenings, sports situations, and other random facts. I've read it multiple times, and there is even an interactive feature where codes are provided to solve puzzles. However, the book doesn't really have much else going for it. Don't get me wrong, the book was interesting, but it wasn't a story at all- just a well-laid out almanac. Not a horrible book, but not a compelling novel either.