A Kids' Guide to Building Forts

Rating:
Summary: A book your kids will go back to time and time again.
Review: As a mother of three and a a daycare provider I highly recommend this "get up and build" book. The ideas for fort building will spark your childs imagination and they'll go back time and again to look for ideas for indoor and outdoor forts. This book can save a mom on a snow day- as long as you don't mind what will be created!

Rating:
Summary: Accident waiting to happen
Review: I bought this book thinking how cool it would be for an 8-year-old nephew. But I am blown away by the number of ways a kid could get hurt or even killed by following the advice in this book. After a very brief and largely useless "safety first" warning, the author goes on to suggest such things as snow forts that use car hoods and other heavy objects as the roof -- with snow packed on top, no less. If the kid isn't crushed or suffocated in his nifty new fort, he probably will die of lock-jaw from the cut he gets on the rusty edge of the car hood -- or from the old windows that the author suggests are the perfect thing for lean-to forts. Does this guy live next to a junk yard? There are several cool ideas in the book, but none that a kid probably couldn't come up with on his own -- especially if mom and dad say, "Yeah, go ahead. Anything and everything you can find to drag into the backyard is ok with us." Several of the tee-pee/wigwam forts are just fine if a kid is in the woods with lots of deadfall. Otherwise, the environment is going to take a hit -- as are the $180 trees that the neighbors just planted last spring. Which is nothing compared to the hospital bill you'll have for the 19 stitches required to close up the gash from the suggested use of a scythe or weed cutter to "gather handfuls of grass or hay no shorter than 15 inches." Send 'em over to my yard; my lawn needs mowing. Seriously, folks. This book should be recalled.

Rating:
Summary: my 7 year old loved it
Review: We got a copy of this book from the library. When it was time to return it my son begged for his own copy. Great book.