Product Description

Peter Applebome grew up obsessed by box scores, so when his son, Ben, joined Little League he happily assumed he'd be spending Ben's childhood at the ballfield. But what Ben really liked was hiking and camping--and when he joined the local Scout troop Applebome reluctantly went along for the ride. As someone who had never made a fire except in a gas grill and tied knots only in his shoelaces, Applebome was an unlikely recruit. Taking us from the low points (sneaking out of camp to watch basketball in a bar) to the unexpected triumphs (winning the Scoutmaster Challenge) and through all the trekorees and derbies in between, Applebome hikes the difficult trail from tenderfoot skeptic to proud Scout dad. Offering affectionate portraits of troop leaders and the motley group of boys in their charge, he also laces his very funny narrative with an informal but fascinating history of Scouting and grapples with the modern-day controversies that will help determine Scouting's future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1489867 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
New York Times writer and author Applebome (Dixie Rising) turns from the political to the personal as he recounts his adventures over three years as a Scoutmaster for his son's Boy Scout troop in suburban New York. A "committed indoorsman" who was turned off by the "dorky superfluity" of scouting during his own baby boomer childhood, he "soon found himself sucked in to Scouting" and "the way that it brought kids and dads together in a totally noncompetitive way." This engaging book moves back and forth among three narrative strands. Applebome gives a loving and often amusing description of his son's scouting adventures, "one part Braveheart and one part Lord of the Flies." He provides an excellent short history of the Boy Scouts, from the Edwardian roots of its first leader, the "astoundingly complex" British war hero and "repressed homosexual" Lord Robert Baden-Powell, to its current enrollment decline. He also discusses the institutional scouting policy that bans gays from being members, a position successfully defended before the Supreme Court. Applebome struggles with the tension between the right of free association and the "threadbare" logic of the Scout position. But while he disagrees with the ban, he too easily dismisses it as having "minimal real-world implications," not fully acknowledging that the wonderfulness of this "unexpected vehicle to share [his] son's youth" is something that the Boy Scout organization openly denies to parents with gay children.-- son's youth" is something that the Boy Scout organization openly denies to parents with gay children.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Scout's Honor is at the same time a hilarious outdoor odyssey, a moving glimpse of a father's heart, and the best commentary ever on the Boy Scouts and their touchingly awkward history. When I was a Scout, the ultimate approbation for a job well done was something called "Three and a Half Hows." So here's to you, Peter Applebome: How! How! How! Hhhhh!" -- Stephen Harrigan, author of The Gates of the Alamo

"...a hilarious outdoor odyssey, a moving glimpse of a father''s heart, and the best commentary ever on the Boy Scouts..." (author of The Gates of the Alamo )

People
"Give Applebome a merit badge for wit."