Books for Scout Leaders

When you become a scout leader you are handed a leader book that guides you through the achievements your scouts need to make it to the next level. However, a leader is more than a guide, a leader inspires, a leader commands, and a leader makes mistakes. As your journey into scouting with your son or daughter continues, you need to find additional resources that make you grow as a leader. Hopefully, your predecessor gave you some hand me down books that will help you get through the years. If not, you will find many great books that will help you as a leader beyond the standard leader books.

Your scouts look to you for wisdom, confidence, and knowledge, so, whether your a cub scout den leader, a girl scout troop leader, or one of the many boy scout troop leaders you owe it to yourself and your scouts to be the best leader you can be.

The quotes in this book are from famous people and center around the scout's 12 values. The author has two sons that have earned their Eagle Scout, and a third son working on his Eagle Scout project. These are great ice breakers at a den or troop meeting to talk about one of the scout values.

After all, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

In 1912, Arthur Eldred was honored as the first Eagle Scout in the United States. In 2009, the 2 millionth Eagle Scout was honored. Some other famous Eagle Scouts, Neil Armstrong, Steven Spielberg, James Steward, James Brady, Walter Cronkite, and Gerald Ford, the only US President to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

This is a book every scout leader should read, and every scout that is trying to earn the rank of Eagle Scout should read.

Somewhere on your journey as a scout leader you are going to start cooking over campfires and after the third time you've cooked hotdogs, you know it's time to find something else to cook at you next campout.

There are three ways to cook over a fire: with a stick, with foil, and in a dutch oven. With a stick is easy, put a hot dog on a stick and roast it like a marshmallow. I remember cooking with foil when I was a cub scout in 1976, and last summer I did it again with my son at Webelos camp. The great thing about cooking with foil is that the scout can participate in creating his or her meal and you can put almost anything in foil. The last is cooking with a dutch oven. We mainly cook cobbler with a dutch over, however, the cookbook below will give you many ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When you start out being a scout leader, you realize that at some point you will need to teach your scouts a skit. Skits are designed to build self confidence and start the process of speaking in public. As you watch the skits from your pack or troop, you begin to realize that you can't do the same ones you just watched. You need a skit book to do that unique skit that no one has seen or done before.

One of the must have books for a girl scout leader is the book of girl scout badges. The badge book helps the girl scout leader plan for and complete the activities needed to receive each badge. This is a must have for any Junior Girl Scout Leader.

My wife was a brownie leader for five years. Every meeting she would stress over what project she wanted the girls to make. If she had this book of 57 try-its, she would have been a little less stress in the planning of each meeting.

In 2010, the Boy Scouts of America celebrated 100 years. This book is written by an Eagle Scout and provides a great depiction of boy scouts over the past 100 years. As a great scout leader, knowing the 100 year history of Boy Scouts helps you understand the prestige and the honor you have been given as you take your cub scouts and boy scouts from their journey from Tiger scout to Eagle Scout.

Girl Scout troop leaders have similar responsibilities as their Boy Scout counterparts. They start off with Daisy and Brownie troops and graduate to Junior Scouts and finally Girl Scouts. The girls look to their girl scout leaders for wisdom, leadership, and guidance as they travel from a little girl to teenager to college student.

The history of girl scouts give a leader perspective on the history of girl scouting over the last 100 years. The girl scout movement started 1910 by Agnes Baden-Powell, the sister of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scout movement. In 1912, Juliette Low, held the first meeting of Girl Scouts in the United States and contributed to their community during World War I.

This is an optional book, but if your cub scout pack or girl scout troop hasn't gone on more than a five mile hike. Hiking and backpacking are great ways to get the scouts out and explore. However, you need to be prepared before your go hiking. You need to check the weather channel to determine the weather, you should check the trail schedule to make sure your not going the day of another event, and finally you should wear the right shoes and socks.

One of the first books you should receive or buy is the leader book for your particular den or troop. If you don't receive this book as a leader, you should go to your local scout shop and purchase the book. The leader book will help guide you through the current year activities and help your scouts earn their achievements for the year.

One of the things we sometimes forget is that our scout leaders are on a limited budget. When that happens, we have to be resourceful and since books don't change very often, we can pick up used books via ebay, the library, or craigs list. One of the scouting values is to reuse resources, and that goes to reusing books as well.

Check out below for some books being offered on eBay.