Catch a Crayfish is a book of fun projects, skills, and adventures for kids. This read is great to share with your students and exchange fun outdoorsy adventure stories. The main hope is to inspire students who are not used to exploring outside to go out and do so. Roaming, observing and having fun is the real job of children and the only way to learn. Even better, this book should be a required read for every parent in need of ideas for fun kids activities.

I absolutely loved this book. As a parent, it helped give me ideas of things to teach my children. I love how much Rinella speaks to children with respect and confidence. He gives facts on why these things are safe, but teaches them safety as well. So many great ideas for every family- whether you want to rough it in a shelter you made yourself or start a garden and a compost pile. There are activities for everyone. If you have a child 10+ You should absolutely put this book in their hands or read it with them! I even got ideas for my 3 and 5 year old. These are the kinds of books we need!

I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn’t put it down.
I just loved all the characters. I highly recommend this book.

Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars is a field guide, inspirational letter, and outdoor companion to our little nature lovers! This book will inspire the next generations to protect nature and embrace confidently their love for the outdoors in a world that wants us inside. Steve writes to our children as a friend, inviting them to most importantly, safely engage with nature. This book is perfect for any girl or boy who has a calling to the wild, a desire to explore the natural world around him or her, and to boldly proclaim to the world that it is important to confidently forge a relationship with the outdoors.

I love the variety this book offers! My husband loves all things that involve the outdoors (and he's a big fan of Steven Rinella's podcast). I'm more of an indoors person and love Rinella's books, so I really appreciate a book that can give me ideas to get my kids more involved in the outdoors and enjoying all things that nature can offer. My husband keeps talking about grabbing a copy of this book, which we will have to do!

Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars is a fun collection of projects, skill building, and outdoor adventures for kids (and their grownups) written and curated by Steven Rinella. Released 13th June 2023 by Random House, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a practical and accessible guide filled with projects for enjoying and learning in the outdoor spaces. Although aimed at middle grade readers (and their adults), it's full of all-ages activities and everyone will find something to grab their interest.

There are safety guidelines and instructions throughout. Depending on the maturity and abilities of individual kids, adult supervision may be required for some of the activities. The tutorial projects are arranged thematically: navigation & exploration, collecting & foraging, fishing hunting & wildlife, and garden & home projects. There is such a large variety, there will be something to appeal to almost every taste and ability.

Tutorials include an introduction, materials and supplies in a bullet list, and are followed by step-by-step instructions. Measurements are provided in imperial (American) units only, no metric conversion included in the book. Special instructions and safety considerations are highlighted in colored text boxes throughout.

It's illustrated simply with line drawings throughout; there are no photos. The projects are varied and simple to more complex. There are bird-watching projects, insect and biodiversity projects, hunting and foraging projects (LOTS!), and survival/woodscrafting projects aplenty.

Four and a half stars. This would be an excellent choice for public and school library acquisition, home use, scouting & activity groups, and similar uses.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is a “hands-on, gloves-off, muddy-boots” activity book for kids ages 8 and up. It’s divided into four sections: I-Navigation and Exploration, 2-Collecting and Foraging, 3-Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife 4-Garden and Home. In the note to parents, Steven Rinella advises parents to take a survey of the activities to mark those that could be completed independently and those that would need supervision. From section 1, my eleven-year-old grandson chose “Pooping in the Woods,” to no one’s surprise. He liked that there were back-up plan suggestions for differing situations and learned the term cathole. My seven-year-old granddaughter chose “Build a Bug Hotel” from section 2. The directions were easy to follow and inspired her to head right to the kitchen to get the needed Mason jar and outside to hunt for the bugs. She learned the term specimen and wanted to immediately add the Picture Insect app to my phone. The additional information about a two-year-old finding a new species and having it named after her was a fun fact and a real-life connection.
The activities are well explained, illustrated, and informative. Kids” of all ages will enjoy the projects and adventures. This is an activity book that will be applicable for many years and used over and over. Keep it handy and you’ll be ready to Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This was a fun and interesting book and this’ll be a hit for outdoor adventurers. I liked the book told about several naturalists-George Washington Carver,Rachel Carson,etc… I also liked the how to ideas and recipes included.

Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars is the ultimate outdoor guide. It contains a wealth of information about how to survive in the wild and enjoy nature responsibly. The book also has examples of notable people who devoted their life to preserving nature or promoting it for the good of humanity, for example, George Washington Carver, who discovered at least a hundred uses for peanut butter. The book also provides ideas about wildlife activities, from simple activities such as measuring rain to complex ones such as killing a wild animal, deskinning, and cooking it. This book is a must-have in your library; no matter your relationship with nature, it can be enriched.

This book teaches basic survival/outdoor skills on a level for a middle grades reader. This would be a great book for a parent and child to read together over the summer and encourage some independent outdoor play by the child. Parental warning is advised with this book as their may be certain things you don't want your kids learning how to do (like how to clean their own fish or sharpening their own pocketknife).

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Steven Rinella never disappoints. This was perfectly worded for kids without talking down to them without over simplifying. He talks to them like they are Intelligent little human beings. It killed me that I couldn’t hand it to them or sit down with them and read it to them. This is all great knowledge for kids to have and will get them off screens and outside for sure. I was a “Tom boy” and I would have loved to have had this book when I was younger. I was doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff, but I sure wasn’t being safe and bringing a pack with me. I highly recommend and can’t wait to grab the hard copy and give it to them!

Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars by Steven Rinella

This outdoor guide for kids is written by the star of Meat Eater and author of many nature/survival books. I was able to read this thanks to @netgalley

I would say this book is definitely meant for the upper range of suggested ages (think late elementary and junior high). There are lots of neat diy type things that kids can do with the assistance of their parents. If you have an outdoorsy kid, this would be a great book for them!

I wish I had this book when my kids were young. I loved reading through this. My husband has books by this author that he loves and refers to frequently. I will be requesting for the library to purchase this for our children's room and I will also recommend to our town middle school librarian.

If you’re looking for ideas for getting outdoors and engaging in nature, then this is definitely the book for you! Budding naturalists will learn so much about the outdoors with activities to engage them along the way. The book is well organized with great illustrations and step by step directions on how to complete the activities. It would be a great guide for a forest school type group. It would also make a great gift for a birthday or Christmas.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to review this book in advance of publication.

This book is right up my outdoorsy kids’ alley. It has every outdoor activity imaginable with explanations of how to create them. I only wish it had more color and graphics. It would keep my kids busy all summer if they tried these activities which include things such as gigging a frog, creating weather instruments, building shelters, many nature art activities, and