The absence of modern paraphernalia would make the boy’s world of a century ago seem more alien than deep space to the youngsters on a 2007 Christmas list: no video games or miniature music players, no cellphones, no television, video or movies. And certainly no political correctness. The post-colonial ethos had not been invented, not by a long shot.

But parents were concerned, then as now, that the seductions of modern life were spoiling the young, particularly those living in the booming cities at the turn of the 19th century. Literacy rates were rising; books were the Xbox of the day. Popular authors joined the movement to instill traditional values in the boys of the late Victorian era ‘“ stoicism, independence and self-reliance, and a sense of imperial history.

Two historical artifacts still worth putting under the tree for any young teen or ‘tween boy today (you can decide if girls might also be interested), are Ernest Thompson Seton’s Two Little Savages and Daniel Carter Beard’s The American Boy’s Handy Book. A third, modern title is The Dangerous Book for Boys by brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden.

Published more than a century after the others, but written in a similar vein, the latter title has spent months on the New York Times bestseller list and was book of the year at the Galaxy British Book Awards. My favourite remains Two Little Savages , inspired by Seton’s own youthful adventures in Toronto’s Don Valley. Today you can buy a photographically reproduced Dover edition with Seton’s original illustrations. Seton wrote Two Little Savages while a naturalist for the Manitoba government.