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A Scouter's Reading List


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If you could recommend just one book to be added to "A Scouter's Reading List" what would it be? This is a little project I have been working on for the past few years as a means of continuous learning/improvement.

 

I'll go first:

 

Handbook for Patrol Leaders by William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, 1929

 

The first summer I spent with my grandpa after crossing over from Webelos, he gave me an old dog-eared copy of GBB's book and it has stayed with me ever since. This particular copy belonged to a Silver Beaver recipient and long-time Scouter in the community where my grandparents lived, so it's been passed down from generation to generation.

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Hey, Stosh, nice addition! I had never heard of this particular volume but found it an exciting read. It's on Google Books here:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=DvUWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=along+the+mohawk+trail&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FTdOVLmDEKKV8QGFo4DABw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=along%20the%20mohawk%20trail&f=false

 

So far we have:

 

1. Handbook for Patrol Leaders, William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, 1929

2. Working the Patrol Method, Four Eagle Scouts, 2010

3. Scout Field Book, William Hillcourt, 1944

4. Along the Mohawk Trail, P.K. Fitzhugh, 1912

 

Surely there is one book that you would recommend for basic Scouter literacy. Don't be shy!

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Hey, Stosh, nice addition! I had never heard of this particular volume but found it an exciting read. It's on Google Books here:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=DvUWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=along+the+mohawk+trail&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FTdOVLmDEKKV8QGFo4DABw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=along%20the%20mohawk%20trail&f=false

 

So far we have:

 

1. Handbook for Patrol Leaders, William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, 1929

2. Working the Patrol Method, Four Eagle Scouts, 2010

3. Scout Field Book, William Hillcourt, 1944

4. Along the Mohawk Trail, P.K. Fitzhugh, 1912

 

Surely there is one book that you would recommend for basic Scouter literacy. Don't be shy!

 

Because of this book P. K. Fitzhugh was commissioned to write for the early BSA. His works produced are the Tom Slade Series, which the original book had a movie made from it. Roy Blakeley Series, Pee Wee Harris Series, Westy Martin Series, Mark Gilmore Series and a series of individual publications lumped under the Buddy Boy Series. His legacy remains in the BSA mascot of Pee Wee Harris.

 

These books give a really good look at scouting as it existed in the early years before adults got in there and messed with it. :)

 

Stosh

 

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Here is the list I give to our IOLS participants:

 

* Anything by Robert Baden - Powell.

* Anything by Ernest Thompson-Seton. "Gospel of the Redman", among others, many in modern reprint.

* Anything by William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, who wrote most, if not all, of the Scout manuals and Merit Badge books of the 1940's,'50's,and 60's.

* Gary Paulsen, "Hatchet". Called the Jack London of our time, his books are often required reading for middle schoolers. The Scout Leader should know what his boys know.

* Eric Sloane, "Diary of an Early American Boy". "Reverence for Wood". Historian, antique tool and building method expert, artist and author. Mr.Soane found a real diary written by a 15 (?) year old boy in 1805 in an old house and used it to reproduce what he would have been doing on his family's farm. What my dad didn't teach me about knife and axe, Mr. Sloane taught me.

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Whoa, whoa, SSScout! That's more than ONE! ;) Seriously, though, those are all good suggestions.

 

I particularly like the Green Bar Bill books for Scouting 101. But, as people have been staring to post, this reading list doesn't have to be Scouting literature. There's plenty out there, fiction and non-fiction alike, that is useful to the Scouter.

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Most of the titles for the BSA "Every Boy's Library" are not scout related, but related to activities involving adolescent boys or subject matter that would be of interest to them. I do believe there are 73 titles in this collection.

 

Stosh

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For the camping side of things, I would also recommend Woodcraft and Camping by Nessmuk. You can read it here online:

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34607/34607-h/34607-h.htm

 

There is a lot of fun information here about having a comfortable camp and I think I might try suggesting some of his ideas to my outdoors-shy Patrol. Not everything Nessmuk fits exactly wiith the Leave No Trace ethics...but a lot of it is still quite valid.

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