Genre: Non-Fiction
Format: Online, website
Suggested age: Intermediate
students +, geared towards boys.
Based on the popular
boy’s magazine, Boys
Life, this website is an online spin off of this periodical created by the Scouts.
Although developed by the Boy Scouts of America, Boys Life may have
started out with Scouts in mind, but has evolved to appeal to all boys (and
quite possibly many girls), regardless if they are members of a troop. The home page is jam-packed with animated
gifs and links to draw the audience in to the wide variety of articles,
contests, polls, games, projects, and videos.
Boys Life has a rich online presence beyond the website with Facebook
updates and Tweets.
For over 100 years,
Scouts have followed a clear vision and method to meet their mission statement and, upon entering
the 21st century, Scouts has evolved to meet the needs of their
members by expanding the Scouting experience online. I must admit, I have not had direct
experience with Scouts, or even Girl Guides, but it’s clear that they are
organizations that provide hands-on, minds-on experiences for their members
encouraging active participation. This
website is no different with many opportunities for users to not only watch and
read the jokes, videos, and articles, but are encouraged to submit their own to
share on the website. BoysLife has
numerous links to support hobbies and printable PDF files for hands on projects
to do at home.
My own first
impression of this website was that it was a little overwhelming with the
scrolling sidebar, multiple sizes and fonts of text, animated pictures,
however, upon showing this website to a ten year old boy in my library, I
quickly realized that it was my own need for order that was influencing my
experience. This boy sat down right
away, excited to start exploring, completely unfazed by the seemingly busy
landscape of this website. He was
especially impressed that he could print projects to take home to show his
parents. In short, I would recommend
this website as a safe and age appropriate site to explore. It seems very well moderated and has multiple
reminders for users to use a nickname rather than their actual names in comment
threads and activity submissions. I
always temper my recommendations for websites with the friendly reminder that
all websites (however safe and suitable) are linked to the world wide web and
it is always best to know what your child is exploring because a website that
is not so age appropriate may be just a couple clicks away.
1 comment:
Where and how can I obtain a copy of Boy's Life Magazine from December 1958?
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