A funny, laugh out loud book about the antics of a group of young men as they seek thrills and adventures of post-WWII American life.

Definitely, the adult in me was laughing at Angel Peterson. I was chuckling out loud while reading this book. My favorite story was when the boys went to the tent revival meeting and threw crab apples on the roof to mimic the “footsteps of God” just as the preacher was saying those words. When Orvis is caught, he inexplicably gives Archie’s name and that makes for even more trouble. As is his custom, Orvis devises his own punishment, which is much worse than what Archie had in store for him! Orvis was my favorite character. His encounter with the bear was equally hysterical and terrifying. What boys will do to get the attention of a girl!
I enjoyed reading Paulson’s “A Note of Caution”. I was expecting the standard wording about don’t try this at home, but Paulson is quite clever in his approach. He notes that they would have worn safety gear if it had been available, but ends by saying “…none of what we did should be done by anybody except heavily insured, highly trained professionals under adult supervision on closed courses with ambulances, doctors and MedEvac choppers standing by”. I also thought teens would like how Paulson would compare his antics to the extreme sports of today. For example, Harris’s exploits with tractor tires are described as “what might have been the first bungee jump.”
The cover illustration and wording might attract younger teens to this book. My 13 year old son picked up Angel Peterson and read most of it in one sitting. He really enjoyed it since it is “all about 13 year old boys”. He also let me know that the world speed record on skis is much faster today. I laughed and said please don’t get any ideas about trying to break that record

All I can say is thank the lord Gary Paulsen and his friends lived through all of these insane shenanigans so that Paulsen could grow up to write some amazing books. I'm almost hesitant to give this book to a child because if it makes me want to make a homemade skateboard and make my own backyard bungee setup, I can't imagine what it would spur in a 10-year-old. Paulsen, for his part, does seem to recognize this danger and put a large disclaimer at the front of the book (although he does also insinuate that it was a proud day when he realized his son was following in his footsteps by peeing on an electric fence and almost frying his junk off).

I loved this book. I snorted, I giggled, I guffawed.

I recommended it to students and they find it just as much fun to read. I have recommended it to adults and they love it.

Paulsen gets kids. He understands the art of never growing old, of enjoying life, of being a little kid in a big body.

This book is tremendous fun. I highly recommend it.

David and I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a 6.0 on the AR reading list. It's about boys (probably David's age) and the stupid things they do trying to break records and experimenting with wind, flight, and generally dangerous things. It is very humorously written. I laughed out loud several times. The only reason to use caution in reading it, is it makes mention of one older boy having a picture of a half-naked woman on his steering wheel...it also mentions one boy searching for "purely educational" pictures of half-naked African women at the library. These are quite briefly mentioned, but enough to be annoying. I try to read everything before David reads it, and of course, that wasn't the case for this book. But if you read it out loud to your child, you can skip the few places that need to be skipped. Tons of fun.

Good funny book

By the time I bounced over the bonnet of a moving Austin Allegro when I was eight (absolutely the unsexiest car with which to experience a brush with death) and landed head first on the road, giving myself a pretty good scar on my left temple in the process, I had used up a few of my nine lives already. I'd fallen from a first floor balcony, almost drowned in a swimming pool in Spain, very nearly fallen out of a window onto concrete twenty feet below while doing a Popeye the Sailor Man impersonation, and plummeted from the branches of a spruce tree after climbing way too high. My antics are pretty tame in comparison with the mayhem gotten up to by the boys Gary Paulsen grew up with though. They're equal parts hilarious and hair-raising. I'm not really sure what it is about boys, but we just seem to think 'I wonder what would happen if...' way too often. My boy is five, and so far we've only had one trip to A&E, for a fairly minor incident. I'm hoping it stays that way, but the odds are not great...

I remember Gary Paulsen being side-stitch funny. But he’s rough for my kids (10). Much alcoholism, child abandonment, near death dumb ideas

I wouldn’t/ couldn’t use this book for a read aloud in my 3rd grade class, but I do think most 9 to 11 yr olds would like it. As an adult, I loved it. It’s laugh out loud til you cry funny in a few parts and an easy read, with a little cultural history to be learned too. Maybe there were a few events and descriptions reminiscent of my own growing up years in rural Wisconsin.

4.5⭐️ Oh my! As a mom of 2 boys and 2younger brothers, this book had me literally laughing out loud. How Gary and his friends survived, who knows, just like all boys apparently. So funny!!!

Geared toward 13 year old boys, this book had us belly-laughing several times. Just boy humor. I love it when we laugh together while reading a book! Engagingly written and fun to read-aloud. Topics included peeing on an electric fence, skateboarding while holding onto a car bumper, and skiing behind a car at high speeds. I had to do some editing though--I left out a damn, and skipped over several passages focusing on the picture of a girl on the steering wheel that the boys liked to look at. I also skipped over another short paragraph about sneaking into a circus tent to see the women disrobing. It was suggestive, not explicit, but I didn't need to read that to my 13 year old and 9 year old.

Author Gary Paulsen dedicates this book “to all boys in their thirteenth year,” and adds, “the miracle is that we live through it.”

Oh, it is a miracle, indeed.

It is almost unbelievable what young Gary and friends like “Angel” Peterson, “Stinky” Parnell, and Orvis Orvisen got into, in their youth.

Mr. Paulsen was born in 1939, just 8 years before Stephen King, and I mention that, because I couldn't finish this work of non-fiction without thinking of King's bromance novella, “The Body," better known to most of us as "Stand By Me."

Paulsen was the son of “the town drunks,” who grew up in a remote corner of Northern Minnesota in the 1940s and 50s, and he and his friends experienced reckless childhoods that were so loaded with testosterone and so lacking in any common sense, you can't compare them to too many childhoods in the modern day.

It was a time of very few safety restrictions, no tv, and a lot of freedom, and the boys not only snickered, frequently, at various images of half-naked ladies and a premium dessert at the drugstore known as “Little Dicks” (ice cream, Coke, chocolate sauce, and, of course, nuts), they invented their own skateboards, luges, bungee jumps, hand gliders and “stunts.”

Good Lord. These boys didn't hesitate to participate in activities that would knock them unconscious, break their bones and scrape off half of their skin.

Most of their antics went right over my almost 10-year-old's head, but not one of them escaped the attention of my 12-year-old.

At one point, she stood up on her knees and almost shouted: MOM, BOYS ARE IN-SANE!!

Yes, honey. Yes they are.

Forget “middle grades read.” I can think of plenty of grown men, especially men over 40 who grew up in small towns, who would read these stories with a pang of nostalgia so bittersweet, they'd have goofy smiles glued to their faces the entire read.