Born to Explore is filled with skills, projects, and essential knowledge for the budding adventurer Explorer extraordinaire Richard Wiese's more than one hundred excellent projects show how to have fun with science and nature, how to not always take the most walked path, and how to learn to "read" the natural world. Discovery does not occur just in the Amazon or deep in the ocean. It happens everywhere around us: Navigate by the stars, Tell time without a watch, Start a fire without a match, Make an igloo, Build your own canoe, And be prepared for any challenge.
A facsimile edition of the tattered notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer, this love letter to the wild details everything you need to know about how to live and thrive in nature, from the principles of treehouse building to wilderness first aid. If you are reading this, it means my notebooks have been found. I am leaving them here at camp for safekeeping along with a few other belongings that I won’t be taking with me. The notebooks are a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, which I’m passing on the you. So reads an excerpt from the weatherworn letter discovered by nature enthusiast Teddy Keen on a recent trip to the Amazon, along with sketchbooks filled with details of extraordinary adventures and escapades, expedition advice, and survival methods, annotated with captivating colored-pencil drawings. It is thought that the sketchbooks were created for two young relatives of the author. Drawing on Teddy’s knowledge of the outdoors, the pages of the sketchbooks have been carefully transcribed for young readers, as they were originally intended. You’ll be transported by riveting adventure tales from around the globe, like being dragged off by a hyena in Botswana, surviving a Saharan dust storm, being woken by an intrepid emperor penguin in Antarctica, and coming face-to-face with a venomous bushmaster (one of the most dangerous snakes on the planet)—all told in lyrical prose and illustrations that wonder at the mysterious beauty of the wild. Having inspired the adventurous spirit in you, the Unknown Adventurer encourages you to set out on your own adventure with information on wild camping, rafting, exploration, and shelters and dens, plus tips on first aid and tying knots. Expert instructions on wilderness basics, like building a fire, what to do if you get lost, and how to build various types of shelters are accompanied by more specific skills culled from many years of experience, like baking campfire bread, creating a toothbrush from a twig, making a suture from soldier ants, and even how to pan for gold. Find your way back to your primal self with the immersive text and glorious color artwork of this one-of-a-kind adventure book. REMEMBER: be good, be adventurous…and look after your parents.
Join two best friends—a mole and vole—on their everyday expeditions to find beautiful plants, meet new animals, and learn more about the world all around them in this nonfiction graphic novel. Each day, Mole and Vole venture out into the world – never forgetting their nature journal! – to see what they can find in their own backyard. From pigeons and jumping spiders to swamp milkweed and maple trees, these two explorers get to know every part of their local environment. But after an accidental move from the country to the city, Mole and Vole worry that everything will be different. As they explore, they discover plants to look at and animals to meet in their new home as well. The story of these two best friends brings to life a nonfiction adventure of finding wonder in nature everywhere – no matter where you live. This book concludes with fun activities for kids to do at home.
Growing up at the foot of Mount Everest, a Sherpa boy named Tenzing Norgay dreamed about one day being the first to climb the giant in his backyard. For years he practiced, carrying loads of rocks in his backpack to grow stronger, prowling the mountain's lower levels; later, carrying loads of equipment for other adventurers, but always, always, wanting to climb himself. But his dream never seemed possible until he met Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper who shared Tenzing's dream. By working together every step of the way, two men from entirely different backgrounds climbed into the clouds, to the peak of Mount Everest. However, as the years passed, only Hilary's name lived on in the history books while, in the west, Norgay's was mostly forgotten. In Tiger of the Snows, Robert Burleigh introduces young readers to one of the Far East's greatest heroes and tells the long-neglected story of a litle boy with an unimaginable dream, who refused to be daunted by the world's most daunting mountain, and who came to be known as the tiger of the snows. Caldecott winner Ed Young brings Everest to life with hauntingly, subtly beautiful animal imageries and resplendent colors, capturing the breathtaking grandeur and life force of the mountain the Nepalese call Mother Goddess of the Earth.
For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel
Follows the efforts of Stuart, his younger sister, and his best friend to locate a missing video-game controller-- a seemingly innocuous mystery that may involve the fate of Earth itself!
Billy Stuart is a young raccoon who aspires to be just like his grandfather, a globe-trotting adventurer who knows no fear. When he learns that his grandfather has found a way to travel through time and is leaving on another great voyage, he sets out to see him off (and maybe sneak along). Billy Stuart follows his grandfather's puzzling clues through a maze of caves and caverns to find him before he leaves, trailed by his Scout pack, the Zintrepids. What Billy doesn't know is that once they go down the fateful path his grandfather has taken, there will be no turning back. Brightly illustrated and enhanced with games and puzzles throughout, Billy Stuart and the Zintrepids is Billy's first adventure and is sure to amuse readers of all ages.
Who hasn't sometimes wanted to change their life and start over? When Robyn Flemming left Australia to wander the world as a nomadic freelance editor, she was single and nearing sixty. It wasn't the first time she had shed an old skin for a new one in the hope of changing who she was on the inside. Was her decision to risk everything yet again an act of faith or of folly? Was she running from the truth about her dependence on alcohol, or running towards a solution? In this captivating recovery and travel memoir, Robyn finds the courage to change not only her surroundings but herself. Finally, she can be at home in her own skin as well as in the world. Skinful is about the questions we ask at life's turning points: Who am I? What life do I want to live? This heart-warming, sometimes heart-wrenching, memoir sends a strong message of hope: it's never too late to make a new path to a different future.
A followup to Solo: On Her Own Adventure continues the author's chronicle of a life lived in pursuit of outdoor experiences, taking readers from the Himalayan foothills of Nepal to the wilds of Alaska on a series of fascinating, sometimes harrowing adventures. Original.
