The Lost Book of Adventure

from the notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer

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Pub Date 05 Mar 2019 | Archive Date 28 Mar 2019

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Description

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.
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...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781786032720
PRICE $30.00 (USD)
PAGES 192

Average rating from 34 members


Featured Reviews

I enjoyed this beautiful guide to adventuring. This would be a wonderful gift for any child interested in exploring the world around them.

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Thank you for the opportunity of reading this one!..
I felt it was a handy book to give to. 13 year old . as a gift.
very instructional.
I love the disclaimer at the beginning of " don't doing this without adult supervision"
Very oriented to boy scouts, adventure and survival tips.. from how to build a tent or shelter to how to treat animal bites..
The illustrations were very beautiful!

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This book not only is a guide to adventure, is a work of art within the pages. Each aspect of the book’s adventure theme is crammed with advice, knowledge and beauty.
Definitely for an older, emotionally mature child but others may appreciate the visuals.

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Stunning ~ Irrestible ~ Intricate

tl;dr: A visualize of all the greatest adventures of your dreams.

EXTRAORDINARY. This book is the illustration of every dream of exploration, like My Side of the Mountain, Swiss Family Robinson, and Peter Pan, in a visual encyclopedia. The Unknown Explorer or his proxy is an exemplary draftsperson. The illustrations blend painterly explorations of color with precision rendering. This book blends the analytical qualities of Leonardo with the curiosity of Blake--but way more accessible than my last sentence. This would be a great gift for the explorer on your list, young or old, and I hope to see it join many school libraries. Every kid deserves to travel, especially in their mind's eye.

Bravo for an exceptional book for all ages.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This book is brilliant! It's gorgeous, while at the same time practical and entertaining. I loved the desperate meals information. If you're hungry enough, I suppose you'll eat anything. And kids will surely discover the "Pooping in the Wild" page--maybe sooner than parents would like! :)
Reading this beautiful book created the desire to go explore the world myself. It would make a great gift. I read the digital download, but I'm sure it's even more beautiful in its hardcover format.
Great book! If I still taught fourth grade, I'd buy a copy for my classroom, It's a bit too advanced for the age level I'm currently working with.
Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to review.

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The Lost Book of Adventure will spark the imagination of readers of all ages!
The book beautifully illustrates different camp/shelter set-ups and locations, guides for survival and safety, tips for planning explorations, equipment/supply lists, and instructions. I enjoyed the brief stories of danger and adventure across continents written by the unknown adventurer.
The book contains brief yet detailed information that older readers (middle grade and up) will appreciate but the illustrations and more simple instructions (ex: How to make a bedsheet hammock, planning a bike adventure) will spark a sense of adventure in young readers. My five-year-old daughter was thrilled to learn about treehouse building and backyard camping and her imagination turned planning these activities into some daring adventures!
The Lost Book of Adventure definitely contains a little something for everyone with an adventurous imagination!

Thanks to Quarto Publishing/Frances Lincoln Children's Books and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Lost Book of Adventure is scheduled for release on March 5, 2019.

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The Lost Book of Adventure by Unknown Adventurer is brilliant throughout. This wonderful book is packed with so much information and a great journal that written in a style like a survival guide but for young children.
It can encourage young people to explore the world around them and involve their parents etc to explore with them. This book could help with their new adventures it is packed with information on wild camping, rafting, exploration, and shelters and dens, plus tips on first aid and tying knots.

Plus, contains expert instructions on wilderness basics:
Like building a fire, what to do if you get lost.
How to build various types of shelters are accompanied by more specific skills culled from many years of experience.......For example:- Baking campfire bread, creating a toothbrush from a twig, making a suture from soldier ants, and even how to pan for gold........What an adventive you could have - even if it's on your back garden.

This book is just Brilliant and great for your next adventures.....

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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The illustrations in this book make it worth a look just on their own - absolutely beautiful! I could see kids with a knack for adventure getting really into this book, especially before a camping trip. Would make a good gift.

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I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Lincoln Children's Books and Netgalley for my unbiased opinion of the book. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! The note from the editor at the beginning of the book, as to how the book came to be made me fall in love before I went any further. This book is middle grade and above. It was great on the very first page stating not to try anything without adult supervision. The Lost adventure is great for getting children outside and living the adventure. Being resourceful rather than having your nose in front of a device inside the house all day. It makes you believe adventure is possible not just something you see on tv!!!! Run don’t walk and buy this book for your children. You won’t be disappointed.

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Beautifully detailed with gentle, almost dreamlike illustrations throughout. The text is organised in a clear manner but the use of small sections and bulletpoints makes it very accessible to all readers including emergent or more reluctant readers. This will appeals to boys and girls of all age ranges. Can't wait to add this to my class library and do some small group guided reading work with it.

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This book whips up a sense of imminent possible adventure. Five stars.

The Lost Book of Adventure is a children’s guide to exploring the wilderness. It covers how to make a forest shelter, read a topographical map, and which foliage makes the best bedding. But it's not a dry guide. There’s an alchemy in its components which makes it persuasive and galvanising. The ruse is that old diaries were found in a hut in the Amazon. The diaries contained accounts of thrilling adventures and wilderness survival instructions addressed to two children - A and L. These diaries were found by trekker Teddy Keen, restored, and compiled into this very book...

The book’s core assumption is that children will go on these adventures: that they will build woodland dens, tie clove hitches, identify wild boar tracks, make bedouin tents from bedsheets, and scout river shallows for glimmers of gold. And that’s the magic of the book: it has fundamental confidence in the capabilities of the child and it whips up a sense of imminent possible adventure.

The instructions are clear and minutely, beautifully illustrated. I now feel completely capable of lashing together salvaged pallets to make a raft - with a mainsail, daggerboard, and hand-hewn paddles. I know where to put the boom, how many bottles will carry my weight, which side of the river to travel up, and which watercraft has right of way. I know how to use sticks to make an igloo, and - my favourite - an origami dinner bowl from a piece of birch bark.

Interspersed throughout the guide are excerpts from the journals of The Unknown Adventurer. He cycles 6,000 miles through Africa, sketches birds in Papua, and confronts a bushmaster in Guyana. From these glimpses, a personality appears: he is observant and resourceful; has a gentle, sly humour and reverence for the big picture: “It’s often only in the wild that the full meaning and enormity of the universe dawns on us.”

Does this all sound too daredevil? This morning my toddlers followed the instructions on how to make sleeping bags from duvets and bedsheets. They are now lost in an imaginary world of campsites and wild teddy bears.

In short, I loved this book. I’d recommend it for all children and parents, but also for illustrators, scout leaders, teachers, anyone with wilderness in their soul, and anyone who wants to reconnect with the outdoors - even if only from their armchair.

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So, a little bit about me: I am an urban dweller and perhaps not the most adventurous. However, I would love to have been the (unknown) author of this absolutely gorgeous book. She appears to have been fearless, resourceful, interested in all the world has to offer and yes, a good writer and a marvelous illustrator.

I loved (!) the artwork in this book. Sometimes it was intricate and detailed, for example, showing in drawings the items that should be in a first aid kit. Other times, it was an illustration of a beautiful place. Much of the artwork was in muted tones of blues, purples, greens, yellows, etc. that drew me in.

A brief summary of the table of contents gives a sense of what is in store. There are headings (and a sample of subheadings) below including

Camp Wild (Becoming a Navigator, Planning Your Own Adventure and Tents)

Rafts (Raft Ingredients, Secret Island Expeditions and Wild Swimming)

Shelters, Dens, and Tree Houses (Night Among the Nomads, Shelters in the Sahara and Planning a Nighttime Forest Shelter)

Exploration (How to Climb a Mountain, Canoe Knowledge and Get Your Bike Adventure Ready) and

Useful Knowledge (Lashing, First Aid Kits and Lifesaving Scenarios)

The editor of this book states that its contents were found in an old hut, in a tin case in the Amazon. The editor states: "Hopefully, it will inspire us all to step into the wild and live a life of adventure, too." I agree.

I give this book five stars and think that it will appeal to those of many ages, backgrounds and braveness levels.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a wonderful book.

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A dream come true in book form for any adventurous child, the Lost Book of Adventure is an absolute treasure-trove of inspiration and advice on exploration, camping and survival.

Peppered with awe-inducing snippets of a mysterious adventurer’s exploits and incredibly detailed explanations and diagrams, I found the level of detail in this book is quite astounding. The pastel illustrations are just gorgeous, building excitement and a sense of wonder in readers, while the text encourages a bit of daydreaming while staying sensible and bringing safety to the fore every time. This book is poetically written and is quite the sight to behold - I would have been absolutely ecstatic to get my hands on this book as a book-loving tween or early teenager.

One to pour over for hours, drinking in all of its glorious details, in anticipation of your own adventures both imagined and real.

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This book makes me yearn for days full of hiking and exploring, warm nights under the stars, and above all, campfires.

The Lost Book of Adventure takes young children to coasts, forests, even their own backyard. It is filled with beautiful, rustic illustrations and handy tips on camping, exploring and all sorts of how-to guides for outdoor activities like fishing, hunting, and sailing. There are instructions on how to make a raft, shelter, and even pan for gold! It even includes a section on surviving in the wilderness.

This is a complete resource for any little adventurer on what to expect in the wild, how to survive, and what tools and equipment they might need to make the most of your time outdoors. Parental supervision recommended.

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Every now and again, one is fortunate enough to travel into an unknown land with an experienced and talented guide - this book is a treasure, a marvelous adventure into the Amazon using the lost sketchbooks of an unknown person.

Beautifully illustrations make this a visually stunning guided tour, equipping the reader with all the knowledge of skills and equipment required for making the most of an adventure through the Amazon.

This is a very special book, highly recommended for adventurers of all ages!

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A perfect book for any adventurer - it makes great use of imagination while being a true guide at the same time. A fun to read from page one! Beautiful illustrated how-to guide and a great story at the same time.

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Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for a review based on my honest opinion

This book was not really what I thought it was going to be. I really thought that my granddaughter and I would enjoy reading it together; it seem like it be more of an adventure guide. I really don’t know what the age range for this book wise but I felt like it was for children to early teens before I read it after reading it a lot of it felt geared towards adults but not really geared towards adults I found it an interesting book with lots of information, but I’m not sure who it was geared for as an audience.

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This book covers a big range of outdoor experiences, like building a tent, a fire, a raft; watching the sky and looking for animals. It starts at the basics with how and what to pack for an adventure and describes in beautiful, intricate pictures nature experiences and beauty. A brilliant book for adults to study with kids just before a big adventure.

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It took a while, but I found a copy at my local library and loved it! I will have to take the editors word for it that this was an actual found book in a hut in the jungle. It was an awesome read! Everyone who loves the outdoors should own this or buy it for a kid. With it you could survive walking around the world! Where was this book when I was growing up?? Awesome book!

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Where... where do I begin with this... I am speechless. I closed the book and felt like I was still lost inside it. And that is an instant *favorite* for me.

If I had been given this book when I was younger, this would have been one of my most treasured books. I would have read it over and over and over. I would have studied the skills it teaches, practiced them with whatever I could find in my backyard, and imagined myself going on adventures all over the world.

This is such an amazing, gorgeous book. It's exactly like opening up an adventurer's notebook: seeing all their beautiful watercolor sketches and handwritten details of their adventures, with little notes and reminders written just for you. It's filled with facts about nature and wildlife, about camping in all kinds of environments, about necessary skills and safety when out on an adventure. It's filled with illustrations to study, words to devour, information to absorb. It's absolutely incredible.

It looks like the age range for this book is middle grade through young adult; I think middle grade readers would probably enjoy this the most, and I think this book would appeal to so many different interests and purposes. Art lovers have a watercolor masterpiece to enjoy on every page. Fans of adventure stories have a journal full of snippets of adventures from all over the world. If you're looking for a book to spark imagination, to use as a story starter or a writing prompt (for any age writer, adults included), this one provides so many opportunities to take the information and images on the page and envision what happened in each location, to tell your own story about the Unknown Adventurer or use the settings and situations for your own characters' adventures.

I don't have the words to heap enough praise on this beautiful, wonderful, amazing book. I'll be buying myself a copy so I - and one day, my toddler, when he's old enough to not rip the pages out of this treasure - can devour every word over and over again, and then imagine new adventures of our own.

Final verdict: I'm obsessed with it! I thought this book was amazing! It's now officially one of my favorite books! I shall be shouting about it from the rooftops for days and I am currently recommending it to everyone I come in contact with!


{ Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy.
My reviews are honest and my opinions are my own;
your reading experience may vary, so give it a read and see what you think. :) }

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An ambitious and beautifully organized and collected narrative and images to accompany them. A must for young children and young children's classrooms.

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An informative book about preparing and for and undertaking your own adventures (under adult supervision). Beautifully illustrated and with great ideas this would be a great book for anyone into scouting and adventurous activities aged around 10+

I received an eARC of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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I have no objection to the content of this book. It's a combination of practical advice - fire making, tent placement, responsible camping - and artistic advice - the value and beauty of experiencing true nature rather than sanitized camping. I'm pretty well on board with the naturalist perspective.e I don't care for the structure of the "found object." It's an unnecessary construct.

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